Rising to the Bait
by SASundance
Summary: AU 10 years after sending his pregnant fiancée into Witness Protection, the Mafia Don threatening them is dead. So is it safe now for Tony to help them when a terrible accident occurs? And since his 9 y/o daughter doesn't know he's her real dad can they keep her relationship to him a secret? Why does he feel like something very bad is going to happen? Sequel to Bait & Switch
1. Chapter 1

Disclosure: I do not own the characters from NCIS nor to I profit financially from this story. I do claim ownership of Jessie, Tia and Melissa however.

Rating: T

Warnings: Nothing at the moment apart from the obvious that this is a sequel so I should probably advise you to read Bait and Switch first before your read Rise to the Bait. Need I say that it is AU and set towards the end of season six?

Bait and Switch was part of my Agent Anthony Afloat series and was the last of the series so far(chapter 6.) I had a link to it on my profile page but feedback from people having difficulty locating it have prompted me to delete it from the Agent Anthony Afloat series and re- post it as a separate story. Hopefully I have manage to save all the reviews that people took the time to send when it was originally posted.

Mmm... maybe I should also warn anyone unfamiliar with my stories to expect English spelling although I try hard to use US lingo except when writing Ducky dialogue.

A/N Well as promised, here is the sequel to Bait and Switch which started life as a tongue-in-cheek poke at the failure of the NCIS writer's to address the issue of why Tony was assigned as Agent Afloat if it wasn't a punishment. As such, it was one of a number of scenarios I wrote for my Agent Anthony Afloat series that were all admittedly quite AU. Several of these vignettes prompted calls for sequels and this one in particular captured my imagination and when I had no internet access for over a week, this story was the result. It is a multi-chapter story and a bit of a departure from what I have written before. It is generally a lot lighter on the angst and introspection and more warm and fuzzy with lots of happier Tony with a little hurt thrown in towards the end. Also some mystery and suspense too and I hope you enjoy it :)

FYI this chapter is not Beta'ed so please excuse my punctuation boo-boos :D If anyone is interested in lending a hand in that department, I'd love to hear from you. Apart from this story, I have two more on the go - my promised sequel to my Narcissist story and another on entitled An Eye for an Eye Leaves Everyone Blind which is unsurprisingly about vengeance. I also have multiple chapters of my Angel Paula series needing attention and a one shot I wrote to fix a minor case of writer's block, so I need to clear out some of these pieces if I can acquire some additional beta assistance. And just for the record, I play nice with others, take concrit pretty darned well and mostly need a Beta to make sure my punctuation is wrestled into submission and ensure that non US idioms don't creep in - they can be so sneaky. So if you are interested in seeing what happens before anyone else and can tame my punctuation then send me a PM.

Okay... enough waffle. Here we go again :D

Rising to the Bait

Chapter 1

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Previously on Bait and Switch

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Tony sat at his desk working on a cold case, since the last few days had been quiet ones for the MCRT. No bodies had turned up, no reports of assaults, terrorism or embezzlement had crossed their desks, and so the pile of cold cases were getting some much needed attention. Tony felt that closing a cold case, while difficult and unglamorous, was incredibly rewarding nonetheless. Helping families who were still waiting for closure was something he felt strongly about.

Sometimes to simply have the comfort of knowing for sure that a loved one didn't come home because they couldn't, not because they decided to leave, meant everything to a victim's family and friends. For others, it was the freedom of knowing that their loved one's killer was not still out there preying on other innocent victims, even if their incarceration would never bring back the victims. It wasn't much, but to the families it was still a freedom of sorts.

Focusing intensely on the file in front of him, the phone ringing on his desk startled him and he picked it up distractedly.

"Yeah, Tobias, what can I do for you? When? Oh, God, I'll be right there."

He was already on his feet, grabbing his phone, wallet, badge and gun as he tossed over his shoulder. "Have to go, Gibbs. Old friend has been injured in an accident and they need me. I'll call as soon as I know how long I'll be gone," and he was gone before anyone had a chance to say anything. Once in the elevator, he collapsed against the wall in despair, pulling out his phone and dialling a number that had become second nature to him after the last few months.

"Jessie, Tia's coming. I need you, can you come?

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~ And now on Rising to the Bait ~

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Tony found himself outside the J Edgar Hoover FBI building in DC with no memory of his desperate drive across town after getting the phone call from Fornell. He rushed through the entrance and texted the veteran agent to say he'd arrived, who then hurried down to smooth his path through security. Tony was desperate for more details than the minor ones he was already privy to and hoped that while he driving to the FBI Tobias had managed to find out more. As they stepped into the elevator Fornell put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Tony. It's not good from what I've managed to find out so far. Melissa suffered a serious head injury and is in a coma. Her husband Dennis was DOA. Tia has a broken ulna and possible fractured ankle and is understandably highly distressed. Melissa has made you her power of attorney in the event of Dennis not being able to act and you are also named in her will as Tia's legal guardian."

"Yeah Tobias, and Jessie is her god-mother and back up guardian if I am unable to act for whatever reason. It sounds like I'm going to need to get out there ASAP. Do we know anything about the MVA?"

Fornell shook his head. "The cops are still investigating but it looks like your everyday drunk driver getting behind the wheel of his car and being a douche-bag and colliding with a family and destroying it. Typically he will probably walk away from the crash himself with a concussion.'

"I've sent two agents to go oversee the investigation. They're going to report back in an hour or so. In the meanwhile, we need to organise flights and transportation."

Tony's personal cell phone beeped and he checked out the text, relieved to see that it was Jessie. She was about to board a plane from Boston and Tony was grateful, knowing she wouldn't have even had time to pack before dropping everything to come. She must have gone straight to the airport with just the change of underwear she carried habitually in her voluminous handbag. He showed Fornell the text.

"Jessie's coming. She's Mel's best friend as well as Tia's Godmother. Going to need her help to get through this one. Again."

He noticed the understated smile and smirked despite the crappy situation, suspecting that the FBI agent was carrying a torch for the statuesque brunette. Detective Sergeant Jessie Lawless was Tony's former partner during his stint in the Philly PD and Fornell had met her when Tony and Jessie had captured Mike Macaluso a couple of months ago. Macaluso had escaped from high security federal prison after greasing the right palms. Damn him!

He and Jessie had managed to trap the Mafia boss when the FBI and Philly PD had failed to hunt him down, even though they'd thrown considerable resources at him. He was pretty sure that Tobias was sweet on his old partner and after all, what wasn't there to fall for, with her athletic stature and her confident and competent aura; something which Tony had always found attractive in a woman. He couldn't see Tobias falling for a shrinking violet either; after all, he'd married Diane Gibbs.

"She's going to go to Arizona with you DiNotzo?"

"Yeah, neither of us have seen Melissa since she left Philly and when I called her I didn't even know if it was going to be our last chance or not. Besides with Tia hurt too, we can make sure they aren't alone." He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.

"Good. You need someone to watch your six. You want some more company? I reckon I can probably swing some time off. I don't think that there is anything to be worried about but it's better to be safe and all that," the seasoned FBI agent offered.

Tony was touched by the offer but he shook his head. "Thanks Tobias but I need someone here to run interference with Gibbs and maybe to get things ready for us to come home. If it's safe, I'm going to try and bring them both back to DC. Even if I can't bring Melissa home, I'll organise her transfer to a hospital in DC so she won't be left alone. Jessie and I are the closest thing she has to family and Tia's just lost her father so I'm not going to separate them if I can help it."

Tobias nodded. "Maybe Jessie might be persuaded to stay in DC too?"

"Don't know, you hiring at the agency, Fornell?" Tony smiled weakly at the sudden gleam in the FBI agent's eye.

As they stepped off the elevator, he changed the topic. "What'cha tell Jethro and more's the point, what are you going tell him?"

Tony sighed. "I may have left without getting authorised leave. I told him as I was racing out, that a friend was involved in an accident and injured. Told him I'd let him know how long I was going to be away when I knew more, as I ran out. That's all I knew anyway. I may not have been terribly clear that I was leaving the state and that in all probability I would be taking extended leave. He's no doubt going nuts calling my cell but I switched it off so they couldn't track me."

Fornell winced, "Let me guess, they will dump your phone and find out I was the last person who talked to you before you went tearing off?" Tony nodded. "So what are you going to tell Jethro when you do talk to him, especially if and when you turn up with Tia?"

"Tell them the truth, Tobias. If Mel and Tia come back to DC I'll eventually tell them that Melissa, Jessie and I shared an apartment together back when we all worked for the Philly PD and we're the only family she has and that Tia is our god-daughter." The agent that stole Gibbs' third wife away from him and still regarded the irascible former Marine as his friend, as strange as that seemed to the younger man, nodded slowly.

"He's not gonna be happy but I'll try to stall him when he calls. What else can I do?"

"Maybe a few things to tide Tia over until I can take her shopping or organise to get her stuff packed and shipped to DC, if I can. Since Emily isn't that much younger than Tia you are probably better suited than me to know what she'll need for the first few days. I'm sure Jessie will take her shopping as soon as she is feeling up to it. Maybe pick up a half a dozen or so DVDs to keep her occupied and whatever else seems appropriate. I'll let you know."

Fornell nodded, "Sure, I can do that. I'll pick up some food too, just to tide you over. I was thinking that we might be able to get the use of one of the FBI jets to transport Melissa back to DC, seeing she is still technically in witness protection. I'll talk to Greene and Grayson and hopefully get that approved this afternoon."

Tony looked at him gratefully. "Appreciate that Fornell. You mind if I borrow your computer to book flights for Jessie and me? I don't want to wait any longer that I have to. I'll call the hospital too and get an update from the doctor if I'm lucky."

Fornell glanced at his watch. "I'll call the two agents I sent out to check the MVA investigation, see if there are any new developments and I'll talk to the Marshals and let them know you are coming ASAP."

Fornell offered to drive him to the airport and advised him to leave his car in the FBI's secure car park. Tony had gratefully accepted the offer, pleased to have some place safe to leave it since he had no idea how long he was going to be gone. He'd managed to book two seats on a flight that took off for Tucson 90 minutes after Jessie's flight arrived from Boston. Now he was sitting waiting for her flight to get in. He'd booked the flights using one of his aliases just to play it safe so he couldn't be tracked and he would also call Gibbs just before he hopped on the plane to make it difficult for the team to find out where he was heading to.

He wasn't looking forward to switching on his phone and seeing all the missed calls but he wasn't going to listen to Gibbs ream him out for breaking rule #3. He had more important things to think about, first and foremost would Melissa still be alive when they got to the hospital and how would Tia react when she learnt that she'd be staying with him until her mother was well again, if she was able to recover.

How was he going to handle a nine-year old? He'd only ever seen a couple of photos of her every year since Mel went into witness protection so he didn't know squat about her, what she liked, what she liked doing. Thank the gods that he had Jessie to help; he didn't think he could cope if it wasn't for the knowledge that she had his back once again.

Next chapter: Tobias and Jethro talk and Jessie and Tony head to Arizona


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I appreciate all the support. And just a reminder that this takes place in season six towards the end at a time where the dynamics of the team where strained and the relationship between Gibbs and Tony was under pressure too. So it was one reason why Tony didn't chose to stop and explain himself to Gibbs and as to the other factors, these will emerge as the story progresses.

You'll all no doubt be relieved to know that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story and tame my fractious commas. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :) Hope you enjoy this chapter which is mostly background and I hope to have the next chapter posted before too long.

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Rising to the Bait

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Chapter 2

Ouch! Twenty missed calls from Gibbs. Checking his phone when he switched it on, Tony winced, wishing Gibbs wasn't such a control freak, not to mention a damned hypocrite. He remembered how Gibbs had threatened to break his hand if he used Gibbs' phone to trace him, but he was absolutely certain that Gibbs would've had no qualms in ordering Tim to try and trace him, Tony. Gibbs was going to be feral when he finally rang him back but maybe he'd figure Tony had shut off his phone because he was in a hospital.

Their flight was boarding now, so he couldn't put it off any longer. He quickly pressed the speed dial for Gibbs and grimaced at his former partner as she grabbed his hand and squeezed it, offering him silent support. Gibbs answered and before he had a chance to bellow at his second, demanding to know where the hell he was, what was going on and why his phone was switched off in direct contravention of Rule #3, Tony leapt in swiftly.

"Boss, I only have a minute. A friend and former colleague of mine was in an MVA and her husband killed. She's in a coma with head injuries and I have her power of attorney and I need to be here with her and make any necessary medical decisions. I'm going to need to take at least a couple of days off, maybe more, but I'll talk to you soon. I've got to go, they're calling me," and he hung up before Gibbs managed to get a word in.

Switching off his work phone, he stowed it in his jacket pocket, picked up his go-bag and grabbed Jessie's hand as they boarded their flight. She had also been on the phone to the Tucson PD talking to the investigating officers about the accident. Like Tony, she'd been struck by the coincidence that Luca Macaluso had been killed in an MVA which had precipitated the escape from prison of his father. Fornell was leaning towards it being just a tragic coincidence but Jessie insisted that they should take no chances and Tony agreed.

As they got on the plane, he cast a careful eye around to see if there was anyone appearing to be too interested in him but he wasn't too concerned. If they were targeting him he wouldn't have been too hard to find. He'd never gone to ground. It would've defeated the purpose of staying behind, but still old habits die hard and besides, he had Jessie to think about, not to mention Tia and Melissa too.

He really hoped that Fornell's analysis of it being an accident and not a hit was correct. He would never forgive himself if they'd been hurt because of him.

Rising to the Bait

Gibbs was stalking around the bullpen, barking at McGee to trace DiNozzo's phone after he'd run out of NCIS following a phone call and after dropping a few crumbs about a friend and an accident. He hadn't even waited to get Gibbs permission before rushing off and now he wasn't answering his phone. When McGee informed him that he couldn't trace his phone as it was switched off, he'd indeed gone feral.

Now that he had more information, he had Ziva checking out reports of MVA's and calling all the hospitals in DC, Maryland and Virginia for anyone admitted with head injuries and in a coma. So far, there had been no one matching that description and Gibbs had finally decided to find out who had called Tony just before he ran off in such a state. Tony was hiding something, he could feel it in his gut but then again, that was nothing new. Ever since he came back from his deployment as Agent Afloat, DiNozzo had been guarded. He was tense and much more standoffish with the team in general and with him in particular. Sure he'd been pissed over Agent Lee and Domino and being kept in the dark incident but they'd all moved on from it. Except that the easy going partnership that he'd had with the ex-cop was definitely a thing of the past.

Deciding to go quiz Ducky and Abby to see what they might know, he instructed McGee to trace Tony's last incoming phone call and he had the sudden inspiration to trace Tony's car. After DiNozzo's Mustang was blown up by the CIA last year, although they'd never admitted to being responsible for it, Gibbs had ordered Abby to place a doohickie tracker thingy in his new one so that they could trace him if they needed to. Although par for the course, Gibbs hadn't bothered to inform him about the tracker. He'd get Abby to trace him. That being the case, he decided to stop off at the lab before he checked in with Ducky. Hopefully, his SFA had already contacted Ducky with any medical questions that he had about his friend.

Half an hour later, Gibbs arrived back in the bullpen, frustrated and furious. Neither Ducky nor Abby had heard from him since he'd run off earlier that day but both agreed that lately Tony was being more secretive than usual. What was really pissing him off though, was that when Abby went to track DiNozzo's car with the tracker thingy, she informed him it had been switched off or removed and she had no way to track his car. That meant that his senior field agent had known it was there all along but, damnit, hadn't said anything to him or even more worryingly, someone else may have switched it off. The best chance to find out what was happening was to find out who had been the last person to talk to him, since it seemed logical to assume they'd been the one to tell him about his friend's accident.

As soon as he entered the bullpen he could tell that McGee and Ziva had found something but neither of them was leaping over the other to share that with him. Since he fostered a strong sense of competition amongst his team, it could only mean one thing. He wasn't going to like what they'd found.

Never one to like being kept in the dark, he bellowed, "Report!"

McGee gulped and handed over a number. "That's the last number to call Tony's phone, Boss."

Gibbs scowled. "Why didn't ya call it and find out where Tony is?"

"Um I thought you'd want to talk to him yourself, Boss. Tony was on the phone to Special Agent Fornell." McGee winced in anticipation of the explosion that was inevitable and Ziva busied herself, focusing studiously on her computer monitor, obviously not wanting to be caught in the fall out.

Gibbs cursed before grabbing his phone plus his gun and barking to the bull pen in general, "Going out!"

As he strode off to get the inevitable hit of coffee, he was fuming and it was lucky that no one spoke to him at that moment or he would've had to restrain himself from shooting them. Gibbs liked to stay one step ahead of his agents so he felt like an idiot when told by McGee that Fornell had been on the phone to DiNozzo. Was he even telling the truth about his friend or were he and Tobias up to something and if so, what the hell was that about? The pair hated each other.

Finally, he calmed himself enough to be able to form words and hit his speed dial for Fornell, cursing when the bastard didn't answer. He left a brief message as requested. "Call me immediately Fornell." Then he sat sipping his coffee waiting for a call back. Twenty minutes and a half a dozen unanswered messages later, he was in his car driving across town to the FBI building and standing at the security desk, demanding to see Fornell.

Fornell came down, scowling. "And what can I do for you Sunshine?"

"You can answer your damned phone, Tobias and you can tell me what you said to my agent that made him go haring out of my bull pen like a scalded cat."

"What did he say was wrong, Jethro?"

Gibbs gave him the 'Gibbs death glare' and Fornell glowered right back at him with the 'I'm a badass fed and I'm immune to the Gibbs' death glare' glare.

Gibbs gave ground since he was looking for information. "Said a friend was injured in an MVA and her husband was dead. That he has her POA and that she was in a comat with head injuries."

"Well, there you go then… so what's with your freak out, Jethro?"

"Damn it Fornell, because my gut is telling me that something is up and my team can't find a record of any MVAs that resulted in a fatality or a head injury in any hospital in DC, Virginia or Maryland." Gibbs stopped, aware that Fornell was furious. "What?"

"You're a damned fool Gibbs, that's what. Why can't you just accept what you're told for once? Stop digging. To begin with you're looking in the wrong state and second it's a Witness Protection case so if you want to piss off the Federal Marshalls as well as the FBI, then keep digging. If you want to do right by DiNozzo and his friends then stay the hell out of it."

At the mention of Witness Protection the NCIS agent's famous gut clenched. "Is someone watching DiNozzo's six Tobias?"

His friend nodded. "Yeah, but even though we think it was just a tragic accident caused by a drunk driver, they're going in on the QT and keeping a low profile. Unless you screw it up. While we have reason to believe that the danger might have passed, we aren't about to take any chances, especially with the subject in a coma. So we need you to back off and wait for Tony to call you when he can. He's stressed right now, so don't give him a hard time."

Gibbs was incensed. "Not that much of a bastard, Fornell."

Fornell harrumphed, obviously not agreeing with Gibbs' self-assessment.

Driving back to the naval yard, Gibbs was feeling both more disturbed and paradoxically more relieved too. Disturbed because anything to do with Witness Protection usually wasn't good news and meant that the witness was in grave danger. It also went some way to explaining why his partner of seven and a half years had never mentioned this friend, who was obviously important enough to trust Tony to give him power of attorney over her affairs. Still, despite the explanation, a part of him still couldn't help but feel that Tony had been keeping secrets even though he knew it wasn't in the same league as the Rene Benoit situation.

And despite being warned to stay out of it, he had to at least know where DiNozzo was. If he'd driven out of state, thanks to the tracker being disabled, short of putting out a BOLO, he couldn't locate him. Which he really couldn't do and keep his agent's trust. That could also potentially jeopardise the witness but he could still check to see if he'd flown out of Dulles Airport. Of the three people he could ask to check if Tony had flown out on any of the flights today, he decided to get McGee to look into it.

Abby would keep on looking once she started and if he told her why he wanted her to stop, she would worry. Ziva thought that the only one who was entitled to secrets was her and wouldn't stop looking either, especially if she got it into her head that DiNozzo was hiding something from them. No, McGee was the one, but he needed to ask him to do it when no one else was around. At least he would be able to follow orders.

Next chapter: A bitter sweet reunion and Tony loses his heart


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming especially for this chapter as the author is a wee bit insecure about it as I'm way out of my comfort zone. You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story and tame my fractious commas. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter and this chapter should answer some of the questions that you might have. As I said before, this story is rather a departure from what I usually write. I'm a bit anxious about the schmaltz factor so perhaps I should just issue a chapter warning to any diabetics out there reading it that they should read it at their own discretion. FYI I didn't know another definition of schmaltz is rendered, (clarified) chicken or goose fat used for frying or as a spread on bread in Germany, Austria, and Poland. Salutations to readers who may be reading this while eating a schmaltz sandwich :D

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Rising to the Bait

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Chapter 3

On the flight to Arizona Jade Lawler and David Paddington aka Detective Sergeant Jessie Lawless and Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo had cautiously discussed the immediate future. Jessie was going to take an extended leave of absence from the Boston PD and stay in DC to help Tony to care for their god-daughter while she was recovering from her injuries and to help Tia deal with the fact that her father had been killed and her mother seriously injured.

Tony was also going to take leave to help organise care for Melissa and hopefully develop a bond with Tia, who would at this stage be living with him. This would be until her mother recovered enough to care for her and to see if that was even going to be possible. He fervently hoped that Melissa would recover and be able to be the mother that Tia needed. Since he'd grown up without his own mother he knew what a chasm it had left in his life. It definitely wasn't what he wanted forTia.

They also discussed the possibility that Jessie might move to DC permanently and Tony mentioned that perhaps Fornell might join the party with a job at the FBI. That half joke earned him a punch on the bicep but even though it wasn't up to his usual standard they both appreciated the attempt to take their mind off just what they were flying into. Neither of them had seen Melissa in ten years and Tony's contact had been minimal.

They picked up the hire car he'd booked in his cover name, just in case anyone was watching. Jessie was feeling more comfortable after speaking to the Tucson PD but it never hurt to take precautions and since they were working with the FBI's cooperation, it made sense to be very cautious. As they drove to the hospital, Tony felt his nerves step up a notch and wondered out loud who they should see first.

"I think we need to talk to Mel-Mae's doctor, Tone." Tony grinned sadly at hearing Jessie use her own special nicknames for them both, taking him instantly back to a more carefree time when they were all together. "See if it's going to be an option to move her back to DC in the immediate future. Then we can get back to Fornell and let him know what's happening."

Yet in the end, as much as he wanted to see Melissa again after ten long years, the pull of seeing Tia for the first time ever was too strong for both of them. They sneaked into the paediatric department and announced themselves to security and the nurses' desk, before tiptoeing over to her room. The sleeping nine year old had been sedated as she had become hysterical after being told about her mother's condition and her father's death.

Jessie reached for Tony's hand and squeezed it hard, knowing instinctively just how emotional this moment was for her ex-partner and friend and she was moved to be a part of it. As Tony stared at the pale heart shaped features, the honey blonde waves of shoulder length hair and her cupid's bow of a mouth, his heart seized as finally he could reach out for the first time ever and touch his daughter. The last time he had been this close to her was when Mel was pregnant before she'd gone into witness protection. Mike Macaluso's threats had made it imperative that his fiancé and their unborn child be relocated following Tony's undercover efforts which had brought down the Mafia boss' empire.

Glancing at Jessie, he saw tears streaking down her cheeks and he remembered that she hadn't even seen a photo of Tia. The photos he received were few and far between and when they arrived were always a painful reminder of everything that he had lost when he'd taken on that thankless undercover mission. Granted, he'd managed to bring down a powerful mafia boss but he had to wonder each and every day for the last ten years if the price he and his family had paid, had been worth it.

Melissa, pregnant with their daughter had been bundled into the witness protection program while Tony had opted to stay behind and become an easy target instead of going into hiding with his family. If Macaluso was determined to make good his threats to make him pay, then he wanted it to be easy for the dirtbag to find him. The last thing Tony needed was to give him a reason to go digging any further and discover his family. He had no doubt if Mike knew about his daughter, that she and Mel would be in grave danger from the Don.

Fortunately, because he had spent so much of his sojourn in Philly working undercover in the Macaluso family, very few people including his colleagues knew that he and Melissa were more than just roommates. Even fewer individuals knew that he and Mel were expecting a baby and while they were mostly limited to the Philly PD, he more than anyone knew that even cops, especially some cops could be bought. As far as most people were concerned, Jessie, Tony and Melissa, a forensics specialist were all simply, colleagues - friends sharing an apartment together. Yet Melissa's pregnancy was not something that could be hidden for long and Tony was desperate to make sure his fiancé and unborn daughter would be safe, then and in the future.

As a detective, he knew that the Witness Protection program was not infallible. It could and did sometimes fail those people it was supposed to protect, so he'd chosen not to accompany Melissa. It had been an agonising decision, knowing that he was letting them go and would probably never see them again. Watching his daughter, someone he'd never expected to see again much less to be able to reach out and touch, he sighed deeply, hoping that he was doing the right thing in bringing her back to DC and back into his life again.

Jessie squeezed his hand again and breathed, "My God Tone, she looks so much like Mel-Mae."

Tony nodded in agreement although he could see some resemblance to his own mother too. The shape of her eyes and her little cupids bow mouth were Paddington traits, definitely. He was glad that she didn't look too much like him, since it would have made it difficult to pass her off as his god-daughter back in DC. He reached out and gently caressed her face, fearful of waking her before he had a chance to see Mel again.

Difficult as it was to tear himself away from his little girl after finally seeing her, he wanted to see his former fiancé and find out about her medical condition. He was relieved to hear that Tia had only sprained her ankle, not fractured it so apart from a busted arm she'd escaped the crash with minor injuries. Tony leant over and brushed his lips across Tia's forehead whispering he'd be back soon, before leaving the room silently and heading for ICU.

Tony hadn't spent much time praying lately, not for the last ten years at any rate, although he was quite willing to remedy that if it meant that Melissa would recover and Tia would get to spend the rest of her childhood with her mother. Hopefully Melissa would wake up soon and he could talk to her finally and tell her how much he loved her and be there for her to help her grieve the loss of Tia's step father Dennis. Much as he felt jealous that her husband had possessed everything that Tony wanted, everything he held dear, he was grateful to Dennis Cooper for taking care of his precious girls for almost nine years. He really hoped that it wasn't his actions in recapturing Mike, which had cost Dennis his life.

Jessie and Tony had reported to the nurses' desk at the ICU, remembering to ask about Rebecca Cooper, not Melissa and once again were vetted by security before they could proceed to Melissa's room where she was lying hooked up to a plethora of machines including a ventilator. Despite the shocking bruises covering half of her face and her swollen jaw which she'd apparently fractured during the collision, he still recognised her immediately. Jessie seemed shocked by her best friend's appearance but rapidly schooled her expression and voice even if her emotions were shaky. Taking one of Melissa's hand each, they each squeezed her hand, while gently kissing it and murmuring words of comfort and endearment whilst both cried unashamedly at the sight of their Melissa, lying so still and looking so hurt.

Tony leant over and spoke softly. "It's Tony Mel, I'm here now. I wish we weren't having this reunion under these circumstances but I'm so happy to see you. Don't worry about anything but getting well because Tia needs you. Jessie and I are here to look after you and Tia so don't worry about her, she'll be fine. Just focus on waking up."

Jessie joined in. "Hi Mel-Mae, its Jessie. The old gang is finally back together again, hey? Tone's right, you gotta focus on waking up girl so we can have a proper talk. And we can have a midnight pig out on rocky-road ice cream again." She stopped, suddenly aware that a stranger had entered the room and was patiently waiting to talk.

Dressed in blue scrubs, a tall tired looking man extended his hand, "Mr DiNozzo um Paddington?"

"Yeah Doc but as a precaution, I'm using Paddington while we're here and this is Mel's best friend Jade Lawler."

Seeing the doctor's confusion, Jessie jumped in. Rebecca, I'm Rebecca's best friend."

Tony frowned realising he'd slipped up and used Melissa's real name. He really needed to get his head together, ASAP. Although it may not be all that likely that any of the Macaluso clan would be out to get them, no one was prepared at this stage to drop the protection precautions yet.

The Doctor nodded. No doubt he'd been briefed about his patient and her background because of all the security that was in place. "Ah yes I see… well I need to talk to you about Mrs Cooper. Can we step outside? "

Tony looked at his friend. "You come too Jade; I want you to hear this as well."

The doctor led them to a waiting room and offered them a seat. "I need your permission to operate, Mr um Paddington. Her intracranial pressure is continuing to climb due to swelling from her injury. We need to get in there and relieve pressure to mitigate further brain damage. The first CT also shows significant bruising to diffuse areas of her left hemisphere. The sooner we operate the better!"

After signing the informed consent form, Jessie and Tony stayed with Melissa until they were thrown out as staff come to prep Melissa for her surgery. While they were waiting they both talked to her, urging her to fight. Jessie brushed out her hair as best she could with all the blood, knowing how much Mel loved people playing with her hair and Tony sang their special song to her softly, all the while holding her hands to remind her that they were finally all together again. Neither of them wanted to let her go but finally they kissed her and promised to be there when she woke up. Jessie was sobbing and Tony had tears in his eyes when they had to say their goodbyes.

Tony made a quick call to his doctor buddy Brad Pitt to see if he'd act as his personal medical advocate, translating all the medical mumbo jumbo about Melissa's condition. Normally he'd ask Ducky but he really didn't want to involve Gibbs or the rest of the team. Luckily Brad was willing and Tony promised to let him know when the surgery was complete. He was also cool when he'd briefly explained his relationship with Melissa and promised to keep Tony's secret without asking a lot of questions or trying to make him feel guilty for not telling him sooner, both reactions that he was sure that the team would inflict upon him. Apart from Brad becoming a good friend, few people knew of their relationship or that they were such close buddies and as his doctor, Brad was bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, not to mention Pitt still felt he owed him big time.

If Tia and Melissa came back to DC with him, eventually the team would find out about them but he was going to play safe and maintain the cover story that Tia was his god-daughter and Melissa was a good friend. Neither statement was a lie; just not the whole truth and until he was certain that none of Mike's minions were interested in him or them, he was going to play it safe. Their safety was worth far more than some hurt feelings and frankly, lately he wondered if he'd been kidding himself about the team and their importance anyway.

McGee was beyond snarky whenever Tony tried to give him orders after being treated like a tin god by the cyber geeks down in the basement. Ziva was downright pissy because he didn't want to break rule #12 with her. Since he'd turned her down during the Domino debacle, she had been even more vitriolic in her put downs. While Gibbs…well their old partnership had ceased to exist after he returned from Mexico and his multiple comings and goings. Add to that the Frog fiasco, him getting Jenny killed and the fact that Gibbs no longer trusted him anymore, he wondered why he'd been so damned desperate to get back to them after being on the Reagan for two months. Pushing aside his depressive thoughts as they walked down to the Paediatrics ward, he knew that he needed to focus on more important things right now. He needed to protect his family.

Tia was going to be waking up soon, hurt, scared and wanting her mom and dad. Instead, she was going to have to settle for two strangers. As if that wasn't intimidating enough, he knew was not exactly good at dealing with kids, they generally didn't like him much - but hey no pressure right? He must have zoned out because Jessie squeezed his arm and tugged on it before he realised she was asking him something.

"T, apart from the obvious, what's up?"

He grinned ruefully. "Um performance anxiety I guess Jess. Tia is going to be waking up soon and wanting Melissa and Dennis and finding us instead. I'm not great with kids… actually they hate me if I was being completely honest. How am I supposed to help comfort Tia when I suck at relating to kids? How am I supposed to bring her up if Mel can't? What if I screw her up? I didn't exactly have good examples to draw on with my own parents, ya know."

Jessie hugged her friend in an iron grip that rivalled any hug that he'd received from Abby. "I know you're scared witless but if the worst happens and Mel-Mae doesn't make it, then you'll find a way to cope, Tone and you won't be alone either. I'm not going to leave you; between the two of us we'll muddle through somehow. Did you ever ask yourself if maybe when you deal with other kids you might be subconsciously sending out vibes to push them away, dude? It must be painful seeing other kids with their parents or having to deal with ankle-biters, especially if they've lost their family too!"

Tony stared at his former partner, surprised at the idea that maybe he had been protecting himself when he had to deal with kids. Seeing how good Gibbs was around them even after finding out he had daughter and she'd died, made Tony feel woefully inadequate. He'd never bothered to examine why he could be so good at working with people and totally suck at handling kids. He didn't even like them, they made him feel uncomfortable.

Perhaps Jessie was onto something. If he didn't like them, it was easy to fool himself into thinking that he wasn't missing out on not having his daughter in his life. By making kids dislike him, that was further reinforcing the idea that he would have sucked as a father and prevented him second guessing his decision to not follow Tia and Melissa into the Witness Protection Program in Arizona.

Jessie could see the wheels turning furiously. "Penny for it, Tone?"

He snorted, mock offended. "Hey, worth a buck at least, Jess. Just thinking that maybe you might be onto something. I'm so used to my team killing themselves laughing at me trying to related to kids that hate me, that I never thought that maybe I was sabotaging myself to avoid painful reminders. Thank you pardna."

The tall, beautiful detective, her cobalt blue eyes spitting sparks of anger, smiled at him solicitously, before giving him another hug so he figured she wasn't pissed at him. An angry Jessica was a force to be reckoned with and he had no desire to awaken that slumbering beast.

"Well I told you about my feelings, more than once, about that precious team of yours Antonio. I know you said they were family but Jeeze Louise, you already had your real family treat you like total crap, so why you let your team mates do the same thing confounds me. One good thing with me sticking around for a while, I'm going to get to meet them and kick their asses if they don't treat you right. 'Bout time someone looked after you."

Tony grinned; Jessie had always been protective of him and Melissa. She was four years older than Mel and almost seven years older than he was and had taken him under her wing when he'd first transferred from Peoria. He wished he'd never accepted that damned assignment to go deep under cover in the Macaluso organisation. He should have broken off his relationship with Melissa when he realised how long it was going to take. Instead, she'd fallen pregnant despite them using protection, all courtesy of Mel taking a course of antibiotics for a kidney infection, according to the medicos. Although, looking down at his gorgeous little girl, he couldn't regret her conception in spite of the pain it had caused.

"Yes Mom," he teased. "Hey Jess, I was thinking that maybe we need to make a reservation at a motel somewhere close." He changed the subject adroitly. "They will likely be looking at discharging Tia in the next day or two, since she wasn't too badly injured. As her legal guardian, they can discharge her into my custody and they'll want her bed here, no doubt. So I'm thinking we'll need somewhere to crash with her at night and also somewhere for her to rest during the day, too, while we figure out what's what with Mel. We aren't going to be able to organise a transfer to DC until she's stable and recovered from the surgery at the earliest."

Jessie nodded, considering what he'd said. "Good point, pardna. Also, she's going need some clothes and toys and stuff and so will we. Maybe we can get one of the Marshals to stop and pick up some of her gear to tide her over til we can figure out what to do?"

"I can do that," a strange voice spoke, grimacing when she found herself staring down the barrel of two cocked handguns. Holding her hands up, palms forward in the time honour gesture of surrender, she spoke slowly.

"Sorry folks, I'm Judy Kendall and I am one of the Federal Marshals assigned to work with the Coopers. I can pick up some stuff for Tia and Rebecca too if you like." While speaking, she carefully reached inside her jacket for her badge and ID, which Jessie took and examined carefully.

She silently indicated to Tony that the stranger checked out and they both slipped their weapons back in their holsters while they examined the newcomer. She smiled at them, clearly happy that Tia was going to wake up with some support since Rebecca wasn't in any position to help her deal with her dad's death.

Tony realised that although the federal Marshall had introduced herself, they hadn't. He held out his hand, "Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo although I'm using the identity David Paddington while I'm here and this is Mel…Rebecca's friend, Detective Sergeant Jessie Lawless who is using the pseudonym Jade Lawler."

Jess smiled. "Sorry about the guns, Judy. We are a little jumpy"

"S'alright Detective, understandable but so far it looks like a DUI resulting in a tragic crash. Doc said you guys had turned up and since I heard little Tia was so distressed they had to sedate her, I thought I'd check in. They figured that Tia should be waking up any time now and I thought under the circumstances, that it might be helpful to have someone she knows to introduce y'all." She noted the appreciative assents and continued, "Just so I don't put my foot in it, do you want me to introduce you as her…"

Tony interrupted her before she could finish, aware that while Tia was sedated she was on the point of waking up. "No Judy, not at this point in time. She's just lost her dad so for now all she needs to know is that I'm her legal guardian and that I'm going to be looking after her.

A moan caused them to turn back to the bed just as a strangled cry made everyone wince with the raw terror they could hear in it.

"Momma, Daddy…"

Next chapter : Who is LuLu and why is Tony upset? And does Gibbs have separation anxiety?


	4. Chapter 4

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Rising to the Bait

* * *

Chapter 4

The Federal Deputy Marshal Judy Kendall moved to the bed and grasped the hand of the small girl who was beginning to wake up from the sedation and thrash around, distressed.

"Tia honey, it's time to wake up now. It's Judy, sweetheart, c'mon open your eyes."

She continued to comfort the child who seemed to be responding to the familiar voice and Tony was relieved that the marshal had turned up when she did. Seeing and hearing his little girl's distress and knowing that she wasn't going to find solace anytime soon was breaking his heart. Jessie came over and stood next to him her arm wrapped around him while he snaked his arm around her waist, hugging her to him. He wasn't sure who was comforting who but Tony was pleased and relieved that Jessie had come with him. Just like she had, six months ago, come running to help capture Macaluso, here she was again standing beside him as they tried to pick up the pieces of a catastrophic mess that had started a decade before.

Judy was sitting on the bed, cuddling the sobbing child into her breast. Tia was crying inconsolably for her missing mother and father. The LEO comforted her gently, but allowed her to cry herself out until finally she was lying supine and spent as Judy spoke to her gently.

"Tia sweetie, there are some people here who want to see you. They're good friends of your Mommy and they came a long way in a plane to meet you again. This is Jessie, she's Mommy's best friend and this is Anthony. Your Mommy asked him to look after you while she can't."

The little girl looked at the two grownups standing by her bed smiling at her even though they looked sad. She rubbed at her eyes and spoke haltingly, "My mommy named me Antonia Jessica Mae Cooper after her and her two best friends."

Tony nodded. He'd been dead against Melissa calling their daughter after him, but when his fiancé went into WP she'd overruled him, compromising by shortening Antonia to Tia. Giving Tia a name that reflected the three friends had been her way of connecting them to her new life but Tony reflected sorrowfully, it would also come in handy now in helping instil trust for them both into his daughter.

"I know, Tia. She called you after Jessie and me. Jessie's real name is Jessica but she likes to be called Jessie or Jess. My name is Anthony which is sometimes also said as Antonio in Italian but I like to be called Tony by my friends, although Jessie mostly calls me Tone or T. And Mae is you mother's middle name although Jess calls her Mel-Mae. I think she's allergic to using real names," he joked gently.

"Momma said that you all lived together before I was born and you used to eat cheesecake sandwiches. That sounds gross!" The nine year old sounded disgusted.

"Yeah it does sound pretty gross, doesn't it? I think she got that a bit mixed up because we used to go out to eat cheesesteak sandwiches. But sometimes your mom and Jessie used to sit up all night at home and eat a whole baked chocolate cheesecake and not save any for me."

Jessie had been staying quiet while Tony talked to his daughter, letting him establish a rapport with the little girl but she couldn't remain silent in the face of such an egregious lie.

"That's so not true, Tone. Don't lie. We always saved you a small piece." She punched him gently on the arm while he pouted and Tia smiled at their silliness. They reminded her of her momma and daddy sometimes and her eyes filled with tears.

"My Daddy's died and the angels have taken him to heaven."

"I know Tia. I'm so sorry. My mother died when I was a bit smaller than you and went to live with the angels too. Maybe she was waiting for him when you dad arrived to show him around." Tony could tell that the little girl liked that idea because her eyes smiled at the thought.

She sobered up and asked, "When can I see Momma? I need to give her a great big hug. She'll be missing me."

He sat down on the bed and took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Jessie and I will take you to see her soon. The doctor had to operate on her head because she hurt it when the other car hit yours. As soon as she's back from the operation and the doctor says we can see her, we'll pop you into a wheelchair and you can give her a gentle hug."

Jessie sat down gently on the other side of the bed and warned. "Momma might take a while to wake up Tia. She sleeping so her brain can get well again but she can still hear you even if she can't speak. And she might look a bit different too. She's got lots of bruises on her face and it's a bit puffy around her mouth but she still looks like my Mel-Mae."

Judy came forward, smiling at her favourite protectant. "Hey Tia, I'm going to go and get some stuff from your home. Is there anything you specially want me to bring you? I'll get your PJs and some clothes for when they let you out of here and your DS3 and some books. Anything else you want?"

"Can you bring my Lulu Bear please Judy? Momma said that she and Daddy bought him for me before I was born."

Jessie reached out and grasped Tony's arm knowing that Tia must be talking about the first stuffed toy that Tony and Mel had chosen for her when they'd returned from the first ultra sound. Although both of them had been shocked at the unplanned pregnancy, after seeing Tia on the ultra sound, they'd been over the moon. If the memory was poignant for her, how much more so must it be for Tia's father? So far he was staying strong and for someone who was supposed to suck at relating to kids he was doing great. He wasn't pushing himself onto her but wasn't acting standoffish either. Since the child had just lost the man she thought of as her dad it was going to be tricky trying to forge a relationship with her.

Jessie knew as soon Tony called today that she would be taking a leave of absence. When he asked her to come she never hesitated. For one thing, they were all family, and she didn't have the luxury of a huge extended family. Then there was the fact that her former partner was notoriously bad at asking for help since he'd been taught that it was sign of weakness and he had practically raised himself and wasn't used to relying on other people. For that reason alone she would never turn him down when he requested her help, ever!

Now, after meeting her god-daughter for the first time and being able to hug her best friend again after ten long years, she knew that she would happily move to DC so that their little family could all be together again. She would need to contact her boss and request a leave of absence for at least a month to start with. While mentally she was preparing for the likely scenario of moving to DC permanently, she wouldn't burn her bridges just yet.

Melissa's neurosurgeon had warned them that if and when she regained consciousness, with the extent of her brain injury she would require months, possibly even years of rehabilitation to recover. He also informed them, that providing the procedure to relieve intracranial pressure worked, it would be days at best before he would allow her to be airlifted to DC. Of course they needed to have a hospital to transfer Melissa to. Jessie knew that Tony had talked to his friend, Brad Pitt about whether as he was Melissa's next of kin and held power of attorney for her and that she was the mother of his child, she could be admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital. The doctor promised to check with The Powers That Be. Fornell was going to see if he could pull some strings too, as Bethesda's additional security measures made it a good option for someone in the Witness Protection program.

The tough talking Boston cop had initially questioned why Tony wanted her admitted to Bethesda when there were hospitals much closer to his apartment. He'd explained that he was hoping to convince his friend to take over Melissa's case as primary physician. If Mel was admitted to another hospital, Brad could only be brought on as a consultant, even if he had visiting privileges at that hospital. According to Tone, apart from him being an excellent pulmonologist and friend, Bethesda also had a neurologist that was exceptional and Tony wanted the best for Melissa. Their rehab facilities were also outstanding and Mel was going to need a lot more than just simple physical therapy. She may need to learn to speak and eat and who knows what else.

Jessie supposed that she shouldn't be surprised that Tone had so many contacts but she also knew that when it came to schools and the like, Tony would be floundering and need her to do the research. She also knew that they had to work out what to do with the Cooper's house and belongings. Perhaps they could have their possession packed up and placed in storage so that when Mel-Mae was well, they could work out what to do with everything. A more pressing issue was what to do about Dennis Cooper's funeral. They would probably have to organise it and if so, she hoped the insurance executive had left written instructions about his wishes with his lawyer.

There was so much to think about but as Jess refocused on Tia and Tony, she noticed they were involved in an animated discussion about Disney versus Pixar movies which morphed into a dialogue about children's books. Not surprisingly, Tia was a big fan of Harry Potter but she also loved the Black Stallion books and Roald Dahl. When Judy Kendal arrived back with several bags, Jessie flashed her a look of gratitude when she discovered that she'd brought a favourite pillow for Tia and Mel plus two favourite rugs. A familiar pillow and blanket would help make her room a little more homelike for Tia and her mom, while Tia's rug was clearly a much loved vestige of her babyhood since it was obviously a blankey even if no one had the bad taste to call it that. When she sighted it Tia fell upon it with relief.

When the little girl was joyfully reunited with her Lulu Bear, a chocolate coloured teddy wearing an OSU basketball jersey that Tony had made especially for the teddy bear, Tony lost it and had to leave the room.

Rising to the Bait

Gibbs was feeling distinctly out of sorts. McGee hadn't been able to find any record of Tony boarding a flight out of Dulles and with no way of tracking his senior field agent, well it was fair to say he was not a happy camper. His gut was telling him that this situation was the portent of massive changes and he didn't like change, especially when it involved him and the team. After the breakup of the MCRT six month ago, he was still trying to sort out the team dynamics that particular change had caused although things had been slowly improving. Now he strongly suspected they were about to be tossed on their asses again.

Heading off to get a coffee refill, he called Fornell to see if he had any more information about his second in command. He wasn't comfortable with anyone else watching his back so he felt compelled to protect what he thought of as his, and DiNozzo had belonged to him for almost eight years now. Having him off where Gibbs didn't know where he was and not being contactable, was driving him nuts.

"What can I do for you, Jethro?"

"You can give me a Sit Rep on what's going on with DiNozzo, Tobias."

"Sounds like a serious case of separation anxiety, Gibbs. Look, I don't have much at the moment. His friend needed surgery and they are waiting for her to get back from the procedure. Won't know much more today. No sign of trouble so far and the crash looks to be an accident at this point. Gotta go!"

Gibbs grunted, peeved that Tobias and Tony both seemed to be using the same techniques for dealing with him on the phone. Succinct report and then hang up before he could ask additional questions. It was incredibly frustrating to have his own tricks turned against him, so he decided to take the team down to the gym to burn off some of his frustration.

Rising to the Bait

Tony was out in the corridor pacing up and down, focusing on breathing deeply because seeing Tia's Lulu Bear had broken him up. They had been so excited that day when Mel had gone for her first ultrasound, especially when they saw Tia's heartbeat for the first time. Sure he'd been scared silly at the thought of being a parent but Jessie and Mel had convinced him that just because his parents sucked, it didn't mean he couldn't be a great father. When he and Mel saw the bear, it was so soft and fluffy that he convinced Melissa that they had to get it for their child and Mel had threatened to dress it up as a fairy. Since they didn't know at that stage what sex Tia was Tony decided to get one of his old college friends to make an OSU jersey and he'd sent the teddy down to Ohio for her to custom fit it.

As he was approaching the Nurse's Desk for the umpteenth time, he heard a woman enquiring about Tia Cooper's room. Stepping up, he inquired if he could help her and instructed the nurse to ask Deputy Marshal Kendall to come out. Tony asked the woman to identify herself and she explained that she was Clare James nee Cooper and she was Tia's auntie. When the police had informed her of her brother's death, she'd driven from Phoenix to make sure that Rebecca and Tia were okay and to see how she could help. The ICU informed her that her sister-in-law was still in surgery, so she'd come down to see her niece instead.

Judy came out and he explained briefly what Clare had told him and Judy nodded and asked to see some form of identification. She explained to him in an undertone that Dennis had a sister but she hadn't ever met her. After checking her driver's licence she told Tony she would check out her identity and see if anyone at the office had met her and could vouch for her. Meanwhile Clare didn't seem surprised by the security procedures surrounding Mel and Tia which suggested on of two things to the federal agent. Either Dennis Cooper had told his sister about them being in WP or she wasn't who she purported to be and already knew. Sending in a female assassin might seem to be an unlikely move but having worked with Ziva, Tony wasn't about to be taken in by the fairer sex. Not where his family was concerned.

He introduced himself as David Paddington; an old friend of Rebecca's. He didn't mention that he had her Power of Attorney or that he was also Tia's legal guardian. He'd wait and see what Officer Kendall managed to turn up about Clare James before he revealed too much information.

It occurred to him that if Clare was who she claimed to be, she would probably want to organise her brother's funeral and he was selfishly grateful that they might not have to deal with that task as well. They had enough to deal with as it was. Dennis' sister might even help them pack up the house and put everything into storage as Jessie had suggested and he'd agreed not to make any hasty decisions about Mel's possessions til they knew more about her prognosis.

Next chapter: They head back to DC, Jessie gives Tony a serve and Tony tells Gibbs he'll request a transfer.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Rising to the Bait

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Chapter 5

After ten long days, they were prepping Melissa Jenkins aka Rebecca Cooper to ferry her by ambulance transport to the airport where the FBI jet was waiting to fly them all back to DC. Between Brad and the Bureau they had managed to get permission for her to be admitted to Bethesda. Brad had also organised a critical care nurse who had flown down to Tucson. Along with Fornell, they would supervise her on the flight back to DC to supervise Mel's medical care, since she remained in a deep coma. Tony was grateful beyond words, which he cheerfully admitted, was unusual for him. He was just so thankful for Brad's assistance in getting Mel admitted to the Naval Hospital and he was beyond pleased that Brad was going to act as her primary care physician. Now, as they were finally getting ready to go home, he heaved a sigh of relief that the first step in their journey was nearly over.

Dennis Cooper's sister Clare, had been a real godsend, organising her brother's funeral so that Jessie and Tony didn't have to. Clare had also helped them pack up the Cooper's possessions and placed them in storage. They'd agreed not to make any decisions about what to do with the house at this stage. Since money wasn't a consideration, letting it sit unoccupied wasn't a problem and Tony would request that the local PD swing by periodically to check on it.

They were still hopeful that Mel would wake up sooner rather than later but thanks to the WP Program along with Mel's health insurance and accidental death and injury policies that Dennis Cooper had taken out for himself and his wife, finances weren't an issue. Dennis being in the insurance industry had been canny in his financial decisions and he made sure that his family would be taken care of in the event of his death. He'd left a generous bequest for his younger sister and Mel was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy, the house and a respectable portfolio of stocks and shares.

Tony was grateful he'd been so financially responsible in looking out for Mel and Tia. Combined with the trust fund that Tony had set up for his daughter when Tia was born, as well as the one that Dennis had also established, they shouldn't want for anything. Yet he still wasn't in a hurry to decide what to do with their home. Right now, all he could think about was getting the girls home to DC and getting Mel well again. He had been doing a lot of research about coma patients and knew that they needed to stimulate Melissa as much as possible and start her on a physical therapy program to prevent loss of muscle mass and stop contractures. Of equal importance was a program to stimulate Mel's injured brain, persuading it to form new neural connections and take over from neurons that were too badly damaged. Luckily, from what he'd been reading, the brain had an amazing capacity to pick up the slack when the damage was too severe to be repaired.

Clare had promised to come down to DC in a few months' time and they would revisit the subject of what to do about Mel and Dennis's house and furniture. He also wanted Tia to maintained contact with her aunt. At first, when she had heard about the car crash, Clare had expected to become Tia's guardian and she'd been initially very suspicious of him and Jessie and he'd hoped that she wouldn't try and make an issue of custody. Fortunately, Mel had taken care of the legal side of things and made sure he was named albeit as Anthony David Paddington on Antonia's birth certificate. And knowing about Mel and Tia being in the WPP and the fact that Tia was named after him and Jessie, she soon sussed out his real relationship to her niece.

After being reassured that the crime figure that had made threats against them all had been killed six months before and that the threat was now minimal, she'd resigned herself to Tia moving to DC and losing contact with her niece. She was overjoyed when he told her that he wanted Tia to stay in touch with her. He explained that while his father was still alive, he'd had no contact with him and no matter what happened with Melissa/Rebecca, Clare would always be family, too. Tony also explained that he currently had no intention of revealing his identity to his daughter because she had just lost the man she thought of as her dad. He also wanted to continue to be cautious about the girls' security in DC just to be on the safe side.

Having tied up as many loose ends as possible, it was time for them to head home. Happy to be finally going home, Tony chucked Tia's crutches at Jessie who caught them and he picked up the little girl and let her ride on his back, piggy-back fashion to their hire car. Soon they reunited with Tia's mother on the FBI corporate jet and said their goodbyes to Clare and Deputy Marshal Judy Kendall, with promises to stay in touch. Once on the plane, Tony introduced Tia to Tobias before they settled down in the private jet next to Jessie and a nervous but excited little nine year old.

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The previous night

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Gibbs was sanding a table top with intricately turned legs he had been working on for the last month, when a familiar tread crossed the upstairs level of his home, pausing at the top of the basement stairs.

"Whadda ya want, Tobias?"

"Yeah, nice to see you too Jethro, ya bastard. Call me crazy, but I thought I'd stop by for a drink and a chat."

Gibbs glared at him. "When's DiNozzo coming home?"

"He's coming back tomorrow. They're organising to have Mrs Cooper air-lifted back to DC and I'm sure he'll contact you once they get settled in again. He hasn't been his usual chatty self as I'm sure you can understand, Gibbs but he did give me leave to explain why he hasn't been in touch much. Dennis and Rebecca Cooper have a nine year old daughter called Tia and DiNotzo is both her god-father and her legal guardian. That is in addition to holding Rebecca Cooper's Power of Attorney."

Gibbs stared at Fornell in shock. The idea of DiNozzo responsible for a nine year old child would be laughable except that the girl was essentially orphaned, from what he could gather. While Tony had many admirable qualities, choosing him to care for a child was not, in Gibbs opinion, a wise choice. The man could barely care for himself. How was he going to cope with a little girl? Gibbs had to seriously question the sanity of his friend Rebecca Cooper in appointing him as her daughter's guardian.

"There wasn't anyone else Tobias?"

"Give him a break, Jethro. Reports are he's doing a great job under impossible conditions. He's going to need support when he comes back but he'll need space too to work it all out. This has been a very stressful time and don't forget that the last couple of years hasn't been easy on him, either. So don't push him and realise that the next few months aren't going to get any easier for him or the Coopers. Rebecca is still in a coma and has a significant brain injury, according to Dr Pitt who is going to be managing her case."

"Brad Pitt, damn it, I should have guessed! I knew he'd go to someone for medical advice. I just expected it to be Ducky. Thought Duck was holding out on me with all that doctor-patient confidentiality crap. Never even thought of Pitt," he cursed, thinking that DiNozzo's absence had thrown him off his game.

Fornell grinned evilly and Gibbs wanted to punch him in his smug Fibbie mouth. It pissed him off that Tobias knew more about what was going on with his senior field agent, than he did. Having Fornell lecture him about not giving DiNozzo a hard time got on his last nerve for sure. Sure he might be a bastard but Tobias made it sound like he was an insensitive, uncaring bastard. DiNozzo belonged to him, not Tobias so how dare he presume to know what was best for his senior field agent!

At least now he had a name, Rebecca Cooper, so he could get McGee to check her out. He'd be able to get into the Federal Marshals database if anyone could.

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Rising to the Bait

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Jessie unlocked the front door to Tony's apartment and as instructed, dropped the bags she was carrying in the hallway. She held the door open so that Tony could carry a sleeping Tia into the apartment and down the hall to the master bedroom. The cop pulled the bedcovers back so that Tony could put the child into his bed and he disappeared back out to their bags to find her pyjamas, while Jessie removed her t-shirt and jeans and they dressed her in her sleeping gear. Pulling up the covers, they tucked her in together, kissing her goodnight before tiptoeing out, where they collapsed together on the sofa with a glass of wine and a movie. Finally after relaxing for a while, Tony looked at Jessie and asked her if she was hungry.

"Fornell said he filled the fridge and although it's probably full of fixings for pasta and lasagne and all things Italian, I'm betting there are eggs in there. Could do an omelette if you're interested? Sausage, red peppers, spring onions, zucchini, Portobello mushrooms. Whadda you say Pardna?"

"Mmm sounds really good to me, Tone. Thought you'd wanna order takeout, though?"

"Nah, had my fill these last two weeks. Want some home cooked food. Besides, gotta set a good example for Tia now we're home again. And I have to stay healthy too. So do you Jess. They're both counting on us now."

Jess nodded. "I know but, speaking about taking care, have you been holding out on me. You developed asthma since Philly? You were wheezing like a 40 pack a day-er, carrying Tia up three flights of stairs. You were such a fitness freak; what happened?"

"Not asthmatic exactly, just got scarred lungs and FYI I still work out. Gotta work out to keep my lung function up but I haven't exactly been able to run or spend time in the gym for the last couple of weeks and if I don't keep it up, I lose fitness pretty fast. Have to start running again now I'm home." He hoped she'd leave it at that and he picked up his glass and retired to the kitchen to fix them dinner. He wondered if he should wake Tia to eat dinner or let her just sleep through.

Jessie followed him to the kitchen like he suspected she would. "Why are your lungs scarred, Tone?"

"Um because of the pneumonia I caught after getting the plague." He spoke the last part of the sentence almost inaudibly, forgetting her hearing was almost a keen as his.

"Holy Hannah, T, I could have sworn you just said you had pneumonia after getting the freakin plague. That was a joke, right Pardna?" She glared at him.

He looked sheepish and just shook his head and busied himself chopping veggies and whisking eggs for their dinner.

"No way Jose, you never caught the bubonic plague! That's some disease from the Middle Ages or Monty Python, that's simply not possible. We'd have heard if there'd been an outbreak, hey?"

"Pneumonic," he corrected calmly, hoping she'd drop it.

"What?" she glared at him.

"It was Y- Pestis, different strain; the pneumonic plague not bubonic plague."

"Damn it DiNozzo, it's still the freakin plague whatever the hell strain it was. What was the survival rate anyway?"

_Double crap, she was using his last name, he was in big trouble now!_ "Well it's umm about 15 per cent. Oww that hurt Jess… what was that for?" He glared at her. She'd punched him on the arm…hard.

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about it, DiNozzo? Why aren't I down as your emergency contact?" Jess demanded.

Tony looked embarrassed. "It happened more than three years ago Jessie. We weren't in contact. Truthfully, it hurt too much to think of you. Reminded me of all I'd lost. You, Mel and Tia and it was just easier to pretend that it was all a bad dream."

She softened, knowing how much it had hurt him to send Mel-Mae into witness protection and stay behind. She didn't know if she would have had the strength to do it. But it made her mad to think he was so ill that he was left with scarred lungs and she hadn't been there for him. He would have been all alone. She crossed the kitchen and wrapped her arms around his waist, her cheek resting against his back.

"Just don't do it again, DiNozzo. You're going to ring up HR tomorrow and add me as your emergency contact person, comprende?"

"Sure Jess, if it makes you happy. Let's eat, okay?" Tony promised. He plated up and put down two omelettes on the dining table while she grabbed the bottle of wine, topping up both glasses. They sat down together to eat and Tony hoped she would let the subject drop."

"So Tone, tell me how you managed to contract of medieval disease and what happen then."

_Damn, no such luck. _He gave her the absolute bare bones of the matter skating over the whole drowning in his own fluids part of the story. It would only upset her and when Jess got upset, he was going to get bruised. He could see her wearing her detective's expression, signalling her intention to dig further and just as he was about to try to distract her, his cell phone rang. He heaved a sigh of relief and noted that it was Gibbs. Frankly, he was surprised it had taken the Boss this long to call, since he'd switched his work phone on as soon as they got back to the apartment and Fornell had told Gibbs they were coming back today.

"Sorry Jess, it's Gibbs." He answered, "Hey Gibbs, what can I do for you?"

"Just checking to make sure you got back alright. Fornell said you were coming today."

"Yeah, we got back earlier and got Mel settled in."

"I thought your god-daughter was called Tia?"

Tony smiled, "It is Boss. Mel is her mother. We got her settled in at Bethesda and by the time we got home, Tia had crashed. Never even got to feed her but I decided that she needed sleep more. It was pretty full on today." He took a breath and Gibbs jumped in.

"Thought her mother's name was Rebecca?"

"It is… well her new name is Rebecca in the Witness Protection program but when I knew her, she was Melissa and she was a lab rat in Philly," he filled in some of the blanks, knowing that Gibbs was dying to know every last detail. He was going to be disappointed though because he was only going to get the sanitised version of things. "So, anything else I can help you with? How's work?"

"Just wondering when I'm getting my senior field agent back again?" Gibbs probed.

"Not sure yet Boss. Now we're back home I have to get some stuff sorted out like school for Tia and get a bedroom organised for her and some of her gear shipped here. Gotta get her into a routine plus I also have to meet with the medical team at Bethesda about a care plan for Mel, too. Might need additional time off and even when I come back to work, there's gonna have to be some changes to my work hours. If that's going to be a problem for the team, then I'll talk to Vance about a transfer. Tia has to come first from now on."

Silence greeted that statement. Finally Gibbs managed to say, "Let's meet and talk about it. See what your needs are and work from there. How 'bout I stop by?"

_Of course Gibbs was going to be dying of curiosity to meet Antonia, _he thought cynically._ Probably can't wait to see what a mess I'm making of looking after a nine year old girl, since kids all hate me. All except Tia, that is. Not sure if on some unconscious level she recognised our shared genetics, or Jess was right and I've be pushing kids away to avoid thinking of her. But she seems to accept Jess and I, even crawled onto my lap for a cuddle at the hospital yesterday._

"Why don't you come for lunch tomorrow, Gibbs? Fornell is coming with Emily to meet Tia and I'm making lasagne since Tobias stocked up the fridge for us with all things Italian. We can talk for a bit then, although we are going to Bethesda later so Tia can see Mel and I can talk to Brad. You're not rostered on this weekend?"

Gibbs leaped at the offer just as he knew he would. "No not on call, so what time should I come and what about the rest of the team?"

Tony was expecting that question. As if he wanted Tia bombarded with a whole lot of strangers when she had just arrived in a strange place with people she was just getting to know. He wasn't sure that he ever wanted her to meet his two team mates with their constant put downs and sarcastic remarks. He liked to tease and he played pranks on his teammates but he never deliberately tried to be cutting or hurtful. McGee and Ziva seemed to only be satisfied lately if they drew blood. He just wasn't comfortable trusting Tia's security to them at this stage or be exposed to their sarcasm. Maybe Abby and Ducky at a later date, but right now he didn't want to overwhelm her.

"Not tomorrow, Gibbs and for now, I'm not gonna tell them about Tia. Feel free to tell Ducky if you want but explain to him that I'll introduce her to him when Tia's a bit more settled in. I figure meeting you and Emily tomorrow will be plenty for her to handle. We'll see you at 1200. Bye!" He hung up before Gibbs could try and argue about the team.

Tony looked at his friend and smirked. She grinned back at him.

"You haven't told Gibbs about me yet, have you?" Seeing him shake his head her brow furrowed. "Should I be feeling threatened, Tone?"

"Nah Babe, just having a little fun keeping him off balance," he smirked mischievously. "Figured if he is blindsided by you, he's going focus on figuring out how you fit into the picture and won't bother giving Tia the third degree. He hates not being in the know, so feel free to make him work for every bit of info, Jess. Thank heavens that Tia doesn't look like me but takes after my mother. Makes keeping the secret that much easier."

Jessie smiled sweetly, no doubt pleased to be given carte blanche to mess with Tony's boss. "You might want to put that photo of your mom away. Tia might figure it out too if she sees it. I can see what you mean about a resemblance. She was really beautiful."

"Good thinking 99, I knew there was a reason I liked you," he teased as he cleaned up the kitchen before settling down to watch the rest of the movie.

Next chapter: Frills, lace and lilac; family portraits and meeting new friends.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Rising to the Bait

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Chapter 6

Tony groaned as he slowly returned to wakefulness, stretching luxuriously as he awoke on his leather sofa and he remembered they were finally home again. Standing and looking at his watch on the coffee table, seeing that it was 0530, he decided to go for a run. Two weeks of no exercise meant Jessie was right, he did sound like a lifelong smoker. Given the state of his lungs he had to get back into running again, pronto. Changing into his running gear, he left a message on the fridge to let Jessie know where he'd gone and that he would be back in an hour. He headed out.

Once he'd done some stretches and warmed up, Tony set off on his usual running route, using the familiar run to think about how his life had been turned on its head. Jessie had wanted him to contact Melissa after they took out Macaluso six months ago and he'd refused, not wanting to disturb Melissa's new life. He received periodic reports about his former fiancé and daughter and he'd known that Melissa was happily married and that the Coopers had a prosperous, safe and happy life together. He didn't feel like he had the right to disrupt the life that she'd had to rebuild from scratch. Now he had to wonder if he'd lost his last chance to speak with her and he was second guessing his decision.

Knowing that there was no point in thinking negatively, he turned to issues that he could do something about. The most pressing of which was their sleeping arrangements. Jessie had slept with Tia in his bed last night but they needed to get something more permanent set up. The apartment had a spare room that was his home office and he needed to clean that out and there was a small pokey little room that had been advertised as a third bedroom but he'd used it for storage. He figured that if Jessie took his room and Tia the spare room, he could use the 'third bedroom' temporarily.

He needed to buy a couple of beds and maybe paint the walls of Tia's room but he didn't want to do anything too drastic, since he'd decided that the apartment wasn't going to be a suitable place for Tia to live long- term. If Mel recovered enough to come home, the apartment would be utterly unsuitable since half the time, like last night, the elevator wasn't working. Carrying a sleeping child up three flights of stairs was one thing but Mel needed a reliable lift or a ground floor residence. So a change of address was definitely in the offing, meaning he wasn't keen to expend too much time setting up a bedroom for Tia which was only going to be temporary.

Stretching out at the two mile mark, he remembered that he needed to give Jessie a heads up about Gibbs and his family so she didn't ask him any awkward questions today. It also got him thinking about how the pair would get along together; he had to admit to being nervous, fully expecting Jessie to tear strips off his boss. Jess was pretty scathing about the state he'd been in when they hooked up six months ago to capture Mike Macaluso. She was in protective mode now they were reunited and since Gibbs always got possessive of people he felt like he owned they were probably on a collision course for a massive brouhaha.

Tony may not have Gibbs invincible gut, but his own usually stood him in good stead and it was being extremely vocal. He couldn't help but feel like something nasty was in the offing and he hoped his foreboding was just his concern about a good old fashion slug fest between his old senior partner and his current one. He hoped but he wasn't convinced that was all it was and decided that he needed to update his will immediately naming Jess as executor and giving her power of attorney. He needed to make sure if anything happened to him, she would be able to look after Mel and Tia. Checking to make sure he wasn't being followed, his resolutely turned his thoughts back to getting through lunch today, grateful that Tobias and Emily would be there too.

He also better warn Jessie that Gibbs was going to jump to the conclusion that they were an item and he had to admit that he'd sort of set it up that way as a way to deflect him into investigating Tia too closely. Actually, knowing Jessie, she'd probably take great pleasure in playing up the idea that they were a couple. As he passed the four mile mark, Tony's lungs began to burn and he decided to cut short his usual run and took a short cut home so that he would end up running five miles instead of his normal seven. He figured he would need to build up the additional miles over the next week or so, until he was back to his normal distance.

He wondered if he should get some bicycles so they could go riding together with Tia or maybe rollerblading would be a fun exercise for them to do. Jessie, Mel and him used to roller blade when they all had time off in Philly and it had been a lot of fun.

Getting back to the apartment, there was no sign of either female stirring yet, so he ducked into the bathroom for a long hot shower, to soak away the aches and pains of his run from muscles that hadn't been utilised for a couple of weeks. Tony added a spa bath to his mental list of requirements when he started looking at real estate. Having females around, they would definitely require a bath, he thought, remembering how Cate had fought with him over the bedroom with the bath in the on-base housing they'd been giving at Gitmo. Grinning, he smirked over the paradox that although a miltant feminist, Cate had ended up playing the 'I'm a girl so I need to have the bath' card before pushing that memory firmly to the back of his memories.

That trip was way too full of painful memories of not only his ex-partner but of Paula Cassidy too, who he'd loved even if it hadn't worked out between them. Returning to more practical bathroom issues he mused that he wouldn't mind having somewhere to soak sore muscles or help recover from various strains and sprains. Although, that said he made a vow that he was going to be much more careful from now on. It would probably be useful for Mel too not to mention Tia.

Dressed in his favourite jeans and a t-shirt, he decided to shove on a load of laundry hopefully without waking the sleeping beauties, since they'd all been living out a suitcase for the last couple of weeks and everything needed washing. Once he'd sorted out the washing and put the first load on, he grabbed a cup of coffee and decided to start the sauce off for the lasagne and filled up a bowl of cereal and milk.

Tony made a mental note to talk to Brad about finding a paediatrician for Tia and to talk to Tobias about getting medical records for Tia and her mother transferred to DC. Officially, he still had two more weeks leave, as had Jessie but they both needed to sit down and figure out what was going to happen after that. He was hoping that Jessie would extend her leave of absence, not just because he was effectively a single dad now and floundering under the logistics and responsibility. Also being with his ex-partner again, reminded him what a great partnership and friendship they'd had, notwithstanding the relationship they'd forged with Mel.

When Jessie finally emerged at 0730 dressed in an old OSU t-shirt and sweat pants of his, along with a ravenous nine year old, he had pancake batter ready to go on the stove. Soon they were all munching on blueberry pancakes and drinking coffee, or in Tia's case, orange juice. He smiled at the pair with their sleep tousled hair. Remembering how much time Jess and Mel had spent in the bathroom when they'd lived together in Philly, he added a second, maybe even a third bathroom to the wish-list of features that they needed in the new place. He figured it was lucky he was good at mental multi-tasking since there was so much to do.

Sitting down all together after cleaning up the kitchen, he told them about his plans for their sleeping arrangements brushing aside Jessie's objections about taking his room.

He looked at her pointedly, "It's just a temporary measure Jess, since I think we need to find somewhere bigger to live, somewhere with a working lift and bigger bathroom with better access."

They'd already talked about bring Mel home if she regained consciousness. Although she would probably require 24 hour a day care, at least at first, he wanted Tia to have her mother around if it was at all possible. To make that happen, they would need a place that was suitable for all their needs. He was hoping that if Jessie did decide to stay in DC that they could find a place that also had living quarters for her that were self-contained. That way she could have her privacy but also be a part of the family, too.

Now that they had been reunited, he didn't want to lose any of his girls again although there was no way that he would pressure Jessie to give up the successful life and career she'd created in Boston. The damage done to their friendship ten years before because of his undercover work hadn't just impacted on Mel, Tia and himself. Jess had also lost her best friend as well as her partner too, and she decided that it was too painful to stay behind alone in Philly. He wouldn't ask her to throw it all away again. The decision had to be hers, made without coercion. So while he longed to discuss his plans for the new place in detail with her, he also didn't want her to think that he was taking her for granted or pressuring her.

Changing the subject, Tony asked Tia about what colour she wanted to paint her room and wasn't surprised that she wanted a lilac coloured room. He'd been thinking that perhaps pink would win the day but although she was feminine she wasn't as girly as he'd expected. Emily Fornell seemed to think that pink was the only colour that existed and everything was all frills and lace but perhaps being a few years older, Tia's taste was just more discerning. He would ask Jessie what she thought when they were alone.

Knowing that there was plenty for them all to get on with before their visitors arrived, Tony had one very important thing that he wanted to do with Tia before they started rushing around. He went to the bags that he'd brought up from the car this morning and took out two framed photographs he'd chosen from the Cooper's house, along with their photograph albums and several portraits of Tia at various ages.

He handed the photos of Melissa, Dennis and Tia as a family and one of Dennis and Melissa to his daughter and explained that he wanted her to find somewhere in their home where she could put the photos of her family so that they could see them all the time. Although it made her teary, which made both adults teary too, he wanted her to know that they didn't expect her to forget her dad or to not talk about her family. As a child he'd been forcefully discouraged from talking about his mother after her death. Tony didn't want his daughter to feel that she couldn't talk about her family or be sad about losing them. Even if Mel did make a full recovery, their lives had been changed forever by the collision that had cost Dennis his life.

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Rising to the Bait

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Gibbs arrived at Tony's front door right on 1200 and knocked, trying not to look too eager since that wasn't part of his image. Impatient maybe, but he was mindful that there was a fragile child here and he needed to check his bastard image so he didn't intimidate her. DiNozzo seemed reluctant to produce her for public consumption so perhaps she was having adjustment issues. And really, losing her family and being transported half way across the country, who could blame her anyway. Expecting Tony or Fornell to open the door, he was shocked speechless to find the door being opened by a tall gorgeous brunette with the most intense cobalt blue eyes. Who the hell was she and if DiNozzo was so against the team, his family meeting his god-daughter, then what was this woman doing here? What WAS he thinking?

"Hey you must be Gibbs; I'm Jessie, come on in." Turning her head towards the bedroom she called out, "Hey Tone, Gibbs is here."

Seemingly unfazed by his lack of response, she ignored his silence. "Take a seat. Can I get you a drink? Tone's got some beer cooling in the fridge. Be right back."

She grabbed a bottle of beer and a couple of sparkling waters and headed back into the living room just as Tony emerged from the master bedroom with Tia who Gibbs observed looked like she had been crying. She was clinging to him and he walked her out to the kitchen and poured her a glass of milk before heading to the living room.

"Hi Boss, long time no see. This is my god-daughter, Tia Cooper. Tia meet Gibbs, he's my boss."

He sat down in his leather recliner chair and Gibbs was shocked to see the little girl climbed up and snuggled into him wrapping her arm around his waist, while juggling her milk with her hand with the cast. The tall brunette came over and rescued it, placing it on the coffee table. He noticed the looked that passed between the woman and his senior field agent and it was intimate and familiar, like they knew each other well.

Was this his latest flavour of the month? And if so, didn't he stop to think that it wasn't such a good idea to introduce her to the little girl when chances were she would be a distant memory in a week or two? At least with the team, they would still be around in six months' time. He was going to have to have a serious talk to his SFA about it later on and deliver a few head slaps to make him wake up to himself.

"Sorry guys, but Tia's missing her dad and feeling sad. We were looking in their photo albums."

The little girl looked at Jessie. "Tony said I can make a special memory book for my Daddy so I can see him every day and not forget him. Will you help too, Jessie?"

"Sure can, Sweetie. You can tell me stories and I can write them down to go in your book. Tony's handwriting is terrible."

Tony pouted, "Hey Jess, I seem to recall occasions when your writing wasn't so hot, either. I can write okay when I have the time, I'll have you know."

Gibbs noticed the girl's tense body relax against DiNozzo during the exchange, which amazed him. He'd been expecting Tony to freeze in the face of her tears but he'd surprised him by seeming to deal with it sensitively. He looked at the little girl, noticing her heart shaped face and shoulder length honey-blonde hair that someone, probably the woman had braided and he couldn't help but be reminded of Kelly, probably because of her braids and age. DiNozzo had said she was nine, practically the same age as Kelly was when she died.

Trying not to stare too much at the child, he turned his gaze on the woman. And what do you do for a living, Jessie?" he probed, missing the grin from his 2IC.

"I guess I shouldn't have assumed you two had introduced yourselves. My bad! Boss meet Detective Sergeant Jessie Lawless, Jess meet Senior Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs."

"Now Gibbs was stunned. "You're a cop? How come we've never met before?"

"I'm from Boston. Haven't had the honour of working with NCIS." He stared at her, unsure if she was being ironic or not.

Tony chuckled. "Hey Jessie, I keep telling you, we're not as bad as the FBI where feds are concerned."

"So how did you two met?" Gibbs was moving into interrogation mode, sensing a story and determined to ferret it out. So his first suspicion that Jessie was simply his latest fling might be off target but they seemed awfully familiar around each other and sure acted like a couple. Maybe they had been together in the past.

Tony jumped in. "Tia's mom, Jessie and I all worked for the Philly PD and we ended up sharing an apartment together before she was married. Jessie is Tia's god-mother and she is Rebecca's best friend although we used to call Tia's mom by her nickname Mel or Jessie special name for her, Mel-Mae."

He shot Gibbs a penetrating glare when he mentioned the two names for Tia's mom and Gibbs nodded, understanding that Tia didn't know about the identity change, which made sense. You don't tell a little child that someone might be trying to kill you, unless you're a fool.

The little girl piped up, "And when I was born, Momma named me after her friends who are my godparents. My name is Antonia Jessica Mae Cooper but you can call me Tia."

Gibbs smiled at her. "My parents called me Leroy Jethro Gibbs but you can call me Gibbs."

Tony and Jessie smirked at each other and Tia looked at Jess. "Can we make the salad now, Jessie?"

"Yeah Sweetheart, we'll check Tony's lasagne and make sure he hasn't burnt it, too." She held out her hand and Tia wriggled off his lap.

"Hey it isn't my fault Fornell and Emily are late and FYI I turned the stove off," he called to their departing backs. "Tobias texted that Diane dropped Emily off late, which explains why they aren't here yet," he enlightened Gibbs with a smirk.

Leaving alone the subject of his ex-wife, Gibbs decided while the two females where out of the room, he could ask some well-directed questions.

"So how is Mrs Cooper doing?"

"They're saying she has significant bruising to the brain. Brad is going to ask Dr Gelfand the neurologist that treated you, to be the consulting neurologist. The inflammation is going down and they say that her coma has lightened fractionally but she's still on a ventilator. The doctor's in Arizona weren't all that encouraging. They say if she does wake up she might be severely disabled… not able to walk or talk but Brad was less pessimistic."

Gibbs thought about the beautiful little girl and he was saddened to think that not only had she lost her father but in all likelihood her mother as well. He grunted which he knew DiNozzo would interpret as sympathy and decided to change the subject.

"How long's it been since you and Jessie have seen each other, since Philly?" He was tempted to come straight out and ask if they were sleeping together but figured he should be a bit more subtle.

"Yeah, but we caught up about six months ago," Tony replied deliberately remaining vague since he had been ordered by Vance not to discuss Macaluso's death. His vagueness all but confirming Gibbs suspicions that the pair had been together in Philly more than ten years ago but had broken up, and then rekindled the affair six months ago. DiNozzo's secretiveness since returning to the team now made sense. As he was about to dig further, there was a knock on the door and Tony got up to answer it and let Tobias and Emily in, effectively shutting down further discussion on the topic. Gibbs could and would wait. He was a sniper after all.

After getting a beer and juice for Emily, the girls co-opted Fornell's daughter into helping with the salad. Jessie let the two little girls set the table while she started plating up. Tony returned and picked up his bottle of sparkling water and took a sip.

"On the wagon, DiNotzo?" Fornell teased him.

"Yep, after two weeks of not being able to exercise, I could barely climb up the stairs carrying Tia last night cuz the elevator wasn't working… again. Even though her ankle's mostly healed, I don't want her going up and down the stairs yet. I need to get my lung function back up to scratch, so I'm on a health kick. Go on take your best shot," he dared them cockily. "After you've had the plague, then we'll talk!"

"I keep telling ya DiNozzo, you need to find somewhere decent to live, where the boiler isn't breaking down all the time or the elevator."

"Yeah I know Boss, I intend to. I need to find somewhere that is bigger and is in a better neighbourhood for Tia." He noticed the two men's shocked expression.

"What, you think that this is an appropriate place to bring her up and if Mel recovers enough to come home she will undoubtedly need somewhere wheelchair friendly."

Fornell and Gibbs exchanged glances wondering just how likely that scenario was.

Next chapter: Ice cream sundaes and Gibbs tells Ducky about Jessie and Tia!


	7. Chapter 7

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I really appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) Nice to see some newbies leaving reviews altho I sometimes think that calling them reviews puts people off so how about we just go with feedback or comments? If you're new to my stories I just wanted to explain that between download constraints atm and working on multiple stories and trying to post on a regular basis I haven't been thanking reviewers individually but I do really appreciate people taking time to give me feedback. It helps with motivation :)

You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Rising to the Bait

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Chapter 7

Lunch was a success with everyone declaring the lasagne a hit and Tia and Emily seeming to be hitting it off too. Tony had promised the pair, that for desert, they could get an ice cream sundae from the ice cream parlour down the end of the block that had thirty different types of chocolate ice cream as well as a heap of other flavours. Tia chattered to Emily about the new bedroom and Gibbs and Fornell offered to go and get the paint and painting supplies while they were at Bethesda. Emily was given strict instructions from Tia and Jess about the exact colour and Tony made the surprisingly sensible suggestion about them finding it on his laptop so that they could get the exact shade.

So the pair finished up their lunch and while the adults were drinking their coffees, Tony set up his laptop at the end of the table so that Tia could find the paint colour she wanted. He would clean out the two rooms tomorrow and hopefully get the painting started while Jessie went out to get beds and bedding. He wasn't completely surprised though, when both Gibbs and Fornell offered to help them to paint the room and fetch the beds in Gibbs' truck. Knowing Gibbs, he would feel sympathy for Tia losing her dad and having her mother in a coma. He'd always had a soft spot for kids and no doubt felt that she'd drawn the short straw having Tony as her god-father. Fornell, on the other hand, although compassionate for Tia and her losses, wanted to help them because he identified with what Tony was going through. As a divorced, single father robbed of much of Emily's childhood and relegated to sometimes week-end dad, he was deeply empathetic of the sacrifice Tony was making to keep his girls safe from a monster.

Tony knew Fornell felt that the Macaluso clan was no longer a threat and he thought that he should stop concealing his relationship to Tia. Yet he couldn't help the fact that he had this strong feeling that something bad was about to go down. As he pointed out, apart from Macaluso swearing to make him pay, and in a way he had succeeded, by making him give up Mel and their daughter, he wasn't the only threat.

Charles Sterling had tried to frame him for murder, as had Jeanne Benoit as payback for her father's death. He had other enemies that had threatened to get even for putting them away and he was frightened that if people knew he had a daughter she would be in even more danger. Now, he finally had a family he cared about enough to sacrifice himself for, which was a totally new and welcome experience and he wasn't about to lose it.

Tony also felt strongly that it would be cruel to spring his relationship upon Tia. He knew what it felt like as a child to have stepmothers move in one after another in the wake of his own mother's death. His daughter was still actively grieving and coming to come to terms with her very significant losses.

Not only had Tia lost her dad, but even if Mel did recover, it seemed likely that she would be left with some level of disability, so Tia's life had been irrevocably changed by an idiot, drunk driver. Even if they were lucky, he would probably only end up serving a few years for what he had done to the Coopers, but it still wouldn't change what he'd stolen from them. No, Tia had more than enough to deal with already.

While Tobias tried to encourage him to rethink his decision, he'd still respected it. He said he understood all too well Tony's fear because he lived the same way with Emily, but he still thought Tony owed it to Tia and himself to tell her the truth. He also thought that Tony should tell Gibbs so he could offer support, but the stubborn former cop had quoted Rule #4- the best way to keep a secret was to keep it to yourself, the second best- tell just one other person if you must. There was no third best! Since Fornell already knew, Tony felt like any more people in DC knowing would threaten the security of his daughter. If Gibbs put it together on his own, so be it, but he wasn't about to tell him.

Realising that they were waiting for a response Tony gratefully accepted the help, irrespective of the motivation behind it. There had been so much to organise in the last two weeks and there was still much to be done. Setting up a temporary bedroom for Tia wasn't particularly high on his agenda in terms of building a bond with her, he was more concerned that she should have somewhere that was her own to make her feel more secure. He had more on his mind and thanked the two men for their help. Tony was much more concerned about what he was going to do about his daughter's schooling. She'd already been dragged out of school and he wasn't sure that putting her in a new school for a few months was such a good thing, knowing that they were going to move which would probably mean another change of schools.

Tony had found a software program for the girls allowing them to change the generic bedroom by clicking on different paint colours and trims and were happily occupied playing around with it. So he took the opportunity to talk about whether or not to place her into school before they moved. As a kid, he'd been moved from one boarding school to the next and subject to bullying while trying to make friends at every new school he'd gone to. Likewise, over the course of his police career, with every move he'd had to start all over again and begin making new friends far too often. It probably went some way to explain why he was so good at it, although the downside was that he had trouble trusting people and letting them in. He had very few truly close friends and no one at all who knew all his secrets.

When it came Tia's situation, his own inclination was to see if they could home school her for the rest of the year. Then they could hopefully be settled in the new house before she would have to begin the new school year at the brand new school. They could try to find a tutor and set up a program for a few months.

After listening to the others express their opinion on the subject Tony was still not sure what to do about school, but decided that they should make a move. He called to Tia asking if she still wanted some ice cream and soon they were outside headed towards the ice cream parlour. Tia and Emily walked along holding hands and he noticed that although the doctor told her she could stop using the crutches today, she was still limping. So he decided to piggyback her on the way back to the apartment so she didn't overuse it. Although her broken ulna would still be another few weeks before it was healed, he was grateful that she hadn't suffered more serious injuries. He decided that it was time to think about getting a safer car now he would be driving her around, one that had a higher passenger safety rating although that didn't mean that he was going to turn into a Volvo driver!

At the ice cream parlour, the two little girls spent ages making up their minds before picking double chocolate with hot fudge sauce and Gibbs chose one scoop of coffee and one of Jack Daniels ice cream. Fornell was thinking of trying Irish whiskey when he saw his daughter looking longingly at the strawberries and cream and picked that instead, figuring they could share both. Jessie grinned when she saw that they had a chocolate cheesecake flavoured gelato and Tony had a mango and passionfruit gelato. They decided to sit at the outdoor tables to eat their ice creams. Tia made puppy dog eyes at Jessie and Tony and their ice creams and they both exchanged a fond look before sharing their sundaes with the little girl, pleased to see that she'd taken so quickly to Emily.

As they sat around joking, Tony felt a sudden chill down his spine. Looking around trying to discern the reason for his fear, he couldn't detect any latent dangers but he couldn't shake his feeling of foreboding. Ducky would say that someone had just walked over his grave. Tony really hoped that it wasn't an omen.

* * *

Rising to the Bait

* * *

Gibbs pulled into the naval yard, thinking he'd knock off a couple of hours of accursed paperwork, which seemed to be breeding like rabbits since DiNozzo had gone on leave. That was the plan at least, until he parked his Challenger R/T in the NCIS car park and saw the stately old Morgan that Ducky had lovingly rebuilt in the car park. Since Ducky was here too, probably for the same reason as Gibbs, he decided to go and have a chat with him. DiNozzo had given him leave to tell Duck about his ward and Gibbs really was in need of someone to talk to about his concerns.

Tobias wouldn't discuss DiNozzo, Jessie or Tia or the fact his SFA was acting crazy and talking about buying a house and bringing Tia's mother home and shacking up with an old girlfriend! Tobias had got a funny look on his face when he'd mentioned DiNozzo and Jessie. He muttered something about getting to Home Depot to get the paint and brushes and no need for Jethro to traipse around with him, telling him he'd see him tomorrow.

Then before he could argue, Tobias had bolted so Gibbs decided to head into the office instead. But Ducky was always ready for a chat and he'd been concerned about DiNozzo's uncharacteristic behaviour, too. So he made his way down to Autopsy to find the ME finishing up a report.

"Jethro, what can I do for you?"

"I had lunch with DiNozzo today, Duck. This is confidential but he said that it was okay to tell ya. His friend was a Lab Tech that worked for Philly PD when he did. The tech shared an apartment with Tony and his girlfriend, another cop."

Ducky was listening intently, his head cocked slightly to the side.

"The lab tech Melissa must have pissed off someone pretty big. She entered the Witness Protection program and ended up in Arizona, working in a library and getting married to a guy called Dennis Cooper. When she had a baby she named her Antonia Jessica after her roommates and made them god-parents. Tony must have left Philly soon after when he broke up with Jessie."

Ducky interrupted, "I always thought he left because of Mike Macaluso?"

"Pay attention Duck! He's never exactly tried to hide from Macaluso. The Coopers were in a DUI collision and the husband died. Melissa suffered head injuries and slipped into a coma. DiNozzo had to fly down to Arizona because Melissa appointed him with her Power of Attorney and get this! She made DiNozzo Antonia's legal Guardian."

He ignored the ME clucking in sympathy. "DiNozzo brought them both back to DC yesterday. Melissa is at Bethesda and his old girlfriend from Philly came back with him too and they're both playing house with the kid and he's acting crazy."

Ducky looked shocked, "Well that's certainly a lot for the poor boy to deal with. No wonder he's acting crazy, especially as he isn't very confident when it comes to relating to children. He must be beside himself dealing with a little girl missing her daddy."

"I can't figure out why Melissa would make him Tia's legal guardian," Gibbs confessed. "Tia's father has a sister who organised the funeral. Why would they make Tony her guardian and not the aunt? It's crazy and now he is talking about buying a house and bringing Tia's mother home when… or rather, if, she recovers. And it sounds like a big if, Duck. Even the doctors say she'll be disabled." He took a breath and got to the issue that had really bugged him the most.

"But here's the kicker…now he wants to take more leave and work shorter hours. Said if I don't agree he'll request a transfer." _Okay that wasn't strictly true since he'd offered not threatened, but same diff as far as Jethro was concerned._ "I don't know WHAT THE HELL he's thinking, Duck!"

The medical examiner regarded his usually stoic friend, calmly. "Well Jethro, it sounds as if he is acting most responsibly…acting quite parentally in fact. Surely you can't blame the lad for wanting to do the right thing for his ward? And he's made it plain that his own parents didn't care enough to make time to spend with him. They made him feel unwanted and unloved. Of course he wouldn't want his god-daughter to experience what he did as a child."

"Maybe Duck, but it doesn't make sense. He hates kids and he has commitment issues so why would he want to raise a child? Why not let Tia's aunt raise her?"

"Well I presume that would be dependent upon any commitments he made to his friend, wouldn't it? And I hope that you will support him in his efforts to look after that poor child. I know you expect your team to be at your beck and call 24/7 but that simply isn't reasonable for someone trying to raise a young child. You aren't planning on transferring him are you?"

He fixed a surprisingly fierce gimlet eye on his friend, sensing his conflict. "Anthony is worth ten of any other investigator even if he is working shorter hours. He can do some of his work from home, surely? He loves working with you so he must be serious about giving young Antonia a good home if he'd consider giving up his place on your team." He stared at the lead agent, daring him to disagree.

Gibbs shook his head. I don't want to lose him Ducky. The team doesn't function properly without him but ya know he loses focus real easily. What's he gonna be like looking after a kid? I'm going to be head slapping him constantly."

Ducky snorted loudly. "He just thinks very differently from you Jethro. He doesn't need you head slapping him to focus. Our dear Abigail would say that he is the yin to your yang. Just remember this - he did alright without you standing over him when you were in Mexico for four months. Or when he was Agent Afloat! Or what about when he spent nearly a year under cover due to Jenny Shepard's folly or when he spent a year undercover in the Macaluso organisation. Not to mention when he worked as a homicide detective with the precinct's highest close out rate or when…"

"Yeah, yeah Ducky! You've made your point." Gibbs grimaced since it was an ongoing subject of contention between them.

"I rather hoped I might have, my boy," Ducky replied, "since we have had this discussion more than once. So now that's settled, we are going to support him and make sure he has a family friendly work environment aren't we? But how else can we support him? I'm sure he is overwhelmed and it's not as if he had a good example of parenthood to model himself on." Ducky mused out loud, obviously pleased at the thought of adding another member to his eclectic unofficial family.

"See, that's the other thing that is well… hinky. He doesn't want the team to know about Tia. We are his family and he's pushing us away. He said that I could tell you about the Coopers but he refused to tell the others. He said he'd introduce you later but that he didn't want to overwhelm her when she was still settling in."

"That sounds very prudent to me, my friend. She must be feeling very disorientated with all the changes and everything she has lost, poor little thing. At least losing his own mother at such a young age will have given Anthony valuable, albeit painful insight, into how his young ward is feeling. How are they getting along, may I ask?"

"She crawled up on his lap when she was crying about her Dad." Gibbs admitted, feeling nonplussed by Ducky's reaction. He'd expected more support but Duck was dismissing his fears. "And he's acting all over- protective, not wanting people to know about her. He insisted on carrying her back from the ice cream parlour because of her sprained ankle even though the doctor said she was alright to walk on it. He is acting all weird - like an overprotective father."

Ducky smiled indulgently at his old friend who, if he didn't know better, was acting just like a jealous child. "Well Jethro that is what he is now, even if it is by default. It must be overwhelming for him too, to have his life changed so suddenly. And judging by the limited information you have supplied, in my opinion he is rather justified in being concerned for her safety. Any new parent becomes something of a helicopter, hovering over the child and imagining the worst but Witness Protection would give anyone cause for concern."

He reached over and patted Gibbs hand. "I wouldn't be too concerned. He sounds as if he is acting quite normally, all things considered, just not as you have ever imagined him. Your baby bird has left the nest, my friend."

Gibbs snorted indignantly, "Not my baby bird, Duck. He's a grown man, just not that you'd know it most of the time."

"Of course he isn't like one of your kids." Ducky smiled at him indulgently, much to Gibbs annoyance. "Can you tell him that if he needs any medical advice regarding little Antonia or her mother, to feel free to call me any time and that if there is anything else I can do, he only needs to ask."

"Will do! Fornell and I are gonna help them set up a bedroom for Tia tomorrow."

Next chapter: He still needed additional confirmation but it was looking as if the child of Detective Anthony DiNozzo and Philadelphia PD Forensic Technician Melissa Jenkins had indeed resurfaced after all these years.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I really appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) Nice to see some newbies leaving reviews altho I sometimes think that calling them reviews puts people off so how about we just go with feedback or comments? If you're new to my stories I just wanted to explain that between download constraints atm and working on multiple stories and trying to post on a regular basis I haven't been thanking reviewers individually but I do really appreciate people taking time to give me feedback. It helps with motivation :)

You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :) Extra special thanks Faldo and my thoughts are with you!

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Rising to the Bait

* * *

Chapter 8

The next two weeks simply flew by. The new sleeping arrangements were set up and Tia's possessions that they'd managed to bring back with them on the flight from Arizona, were arranged in her room to make it feel a little more like home for her. Although she was still having nightmares about the car accident, and grieving for her father, she was eating well and becoming more comfortable with both her godparents. She did tend to be physically and emotionally less guarded around Tony, which surprised them both. Jessie wondered if it was because with her mom in a coma, Tia felt as if she was being disloyal to Melissa by getting too close to her. So she tried to be a friend rather than a substitute mother figure and that seemed to work better.

Jessie, at Tony's insistence, had returned to Boston to sort out her leave entitlements and to get her car, clothes and other stuff so that she could live more comfortably. While she was prepared to resign and move everything across to DC, Tony had persuaded her to wait until they knew more. So she'd gone back and talked to her superiors, taken a further two months unpaid leave on top of the month she'd already requested and sorted out what she could pack into her car. The rest of her stuff she put in storage and let her apartment go, before heading back to DC without any regrets. She had always thought that she was happy in Boston and that she had forged a successful life there, yet she was prepared to leave it all behind without any regrets.

It wasn't until she and Tony had been reunited earlier in the year that she'd first been made aware that something was missing in her life. When they worked together again to pull off the plan they'd so diligently worked out ten years before and trapped that SOB mafia Don who'd destroyed the family they had created in Philly, she felt really comfortable. Then when she'd dragged Tony back to Boston for a month when she discovered how burnt out and damaged he was from the constant barrage of crappy cases and continuous abuse from his team mates which made her ex-partner and friend a shadow of the man she knew, she realised what she had been missing out on.

While she had made some good friends in Boston and had a few failed relationships behind her plus a great career, she'd also lost her Mom to cancer a few years ago. Her younger brother and his family had moved to London for work, so she had no real family close to her anymore as her Dad who had also been a cop had been shot on the job when Jessie was still in high school. It was this that had prompted her to join the force.

So when Tony had called to tell her about Mel-Mae's car accident and she'd met Tia and seen her friend again, the decision to make yet another move had been easy. She already missed Tony when he took up his place on the USS Sea Hawk and later returned DC. Knowing that his so called team had helped create the broken Tony she had found and then dragged home to Boston to heal, had made her anxious about him going back to them again when his time as agent afloat was over.

Unlike their first parting though, he'd stayed in touch, especially during his stint as Agent Afloat. She could tell that he'd been desperately lonely and alienated as the only cop on a ship load of 5000 sailors, all of whom, viewed him as the enemy. Jessie wondered if the jerk of a new director had profiled Tony and known that it wasn't possible to punish him more harshly by sending him away from everyone that was important to him and make him an object of hatred. It was too damned close to what he'd experienced as a child for it to be anything but a traumatic posting for him. The sassy cop hated Leon Vance even without ever meeting him and hoped she would someday be in a position to make him pay for how he had treated her friend.

Once she had come to DC, Jessie felt like she had come home, since her family was here with her. Tony was working hard at getting Tia into a routine where they did some schoolwork with her for a couple of hours in the morning and worked on her memory book each day. After lunch they all spent several hours with Melissa, in between the myriad tests they were conducting. Tony encouraged his daughter to read to her mother for 30 mins every day and to help with the range of passive motion exercises that were necessary to keep Mel supple and stimulated. Tia also helped with the sensory therapies that they were trying to stimulate her neurologically and she participated in choosing different music to play to her each day.

They were also careful to take the little girl out to the park every day and the three of them played or used the swings or played 'chasey'. Basically they were all just generally silly and had fun together and Jess had the feeling that Tony wasn't merely reliving his childhood which had been far from normal or healthy. It was ironic that as an adult, Tony chose to hide behind a disguise of extreme childlike behaviour, almost a Peter Pan persona but even that wasn't entirely accurate.

Peter Pan had refused to grow up but from what she'd been able to cobble together from the piecemeal stories he'd told her about his childhood, he had never really been allowed to be a kid. More like a cross between a prized pedigree Pekinese and a miniature adult! But Jessie felt like the Tony that he became when they all played together with Tia was the real deal and he was experiencing being an honest to goodness kid for the first time in his life, which made her happy.

Concerned about her having to leave her friends behind in Arizona, they'd also decided to organise for Tia to take a dancing class to help her make some new friends. The last two weekends they had been invited to Tobias's house so that Tia and Emily could play together and Gibbs had invited them all over including the Fornells for a cookout. Tony had suggested that it might be a good time to introduce Tia and Ducky who had been respectful of Tony's request to be given some space. She knew that Tony was pretty pleased with the deception they had perpetrated on Gibbs about Tia's real relationship to Tony but she also knew that he was particularly nervous about Ducky meeting her. He had described Ducky as nobody's fool.

Listening to her friend talk about Ducky, she knew that Tony felt great affection for him. She had to say that as strange as it seemed to have a medical examiner as his personal physician, he really trusted the elderly doctor and that was a rare occurrence both from a medical stance and just as someone who had won Tone's hard earned trust. While he had a few sleepless moments about lying to Gibbs, she knew he'd rationalised it easily enough as necessary to keep his daughter safe. She knew that he was feeling much more remorseful about deceiving Ducky for some reason. Meeting the gentle, eccentric medico she could see why he was such a loved and respected figure, almost grandfatherly, and he had a lovely gentle way when relating to Tia without forcing himself upon her. Since Mel and Dennis's parents were dead and the likelihood of DiNozzo Senior ever clapping eyes on his grandchild, Ducky seemed like an admirable surrogate.

Mind you, Tony had been sneaky and after getting Gibbs permission, had invited his good buddy and Mel's doctor Brad Pitt to lunch. He had explained to her that Ducky would pick Brad's brain about Melissa's condition and be less inclined to make intuitive leaps about Tia's parentage. Gibbs was also digging around and trying to find out why Melissa and Dennis hadn't appointed Dennis' sister Clare as her guardian. Annoying as that was, it also suggested that he believed that Dennis was Tia's biological father. He'd been trying to interrogate her about their 'relationship'. Tia's Auntie Clare and she had the distinct impression that Tony's boss was jealous.

Tony had laughed when she'd mentioned it, saying that it was more likely that Gibbs saw Jessie, Melissa and Tia as further distractions that would affect his ability to do his job. Especially since his Boss saw him as someone lacking focus, anyway. Or, he said ruefully, that he was probably convinced that anyone but Tony could do a better job of bringing up a child. Gibbs, he'd explained, was a strong advocate for the child victims they encountered on the job and took any crimes against them terribly personally. He also thought Tia might be pushing all his buttons when it came to resurrecting memories of his own slain daughter Kelly, who was eight when she died.

Funnily enough, Jessie thought, Tia had been rather reserved with Gibbs which was surprising, considering how glowingly Tony spoke of his boss's ability to relate to children. Yet she wasn't shy with Tobias. She had even asked him for help a few times when Tony wasn't available. Jessie wondered if Tia was picking up on Gibbs' ambivalence towards her being in Tony's life and how it had made him less dependent on his team.

Still, she was pleased to meet Ducky and chat to him, notwithstanding his habit of referring to her as Jessica, making her feel that she was back at school. But he was a sweetie and she could see why Tony was so fond of him. He was completely understanding and supportive of what they were going through with Mel and Tony explained Ducky's mother had been battling Alzheimer's and was now in a nursing home after he had cared for her at home for years. Ducky also didn't try and pump her for information and she found herself confiding that she was seriously considering relocating to DC so she could be there for her friends.

After they had eaten, Tony talked about his plans to find a house to buy that was near good schools for Tia and would have enough space to accommodate any live-in staff for Mel and a live-in child carer. He was also hoping to find a space where he could create self-contained accommodation for Jessie to maintain her independence when she wanted it and also separate accommodation for Tia's aunt when she visited. He explained that Tia had a trust fund plus a sizable inheritance from Dennis because of various insurance policy plus investments and they had executive style house that Jessie and he were considering selling to create more capital. If he combined it with his NCIS salary and his modest trust fund inherited from his mother that he hadn't touched for ten years and had invested, he hoped to find something suitable. Tony asked them all to keep their eyes open for suitable properties for Jess and him to check out.

Then they launched into a debate about where the best schools were and possible locations that might have good prospects for places large enough for their requirements. They talked about what Mel would need, in terms of bathroom adaptations and wide doorways, open plan living and single story layout if she had permanent disabilities. Tia's requests were fairly basic. She wanted a big backyard with room for a dog and a cubbyhouse.

Jessie looked around the guys sitting at the outdoor furniture and saw their animated expressions as they discussed the logistics of such a move but it was Gibbs' bemused expression that she found both amusing and a bit insulting. It seemed as if he couldn't believe what they were talking about. Obviously Tony was not living up to his expectations by acting so domesticated and it was throwing him off his game. If he really understood Tony as well as he thought he did, he should have known that Tony never did what you expected him too. It was a part of his charm.

Jessie was pleased to see him acting and looking more relaxed. She knew that he was feeling like something was wrong. Her T was jumpy as all get out and had insisted on amending his will, which she supposed was prudent but he seemed to be almost expecting something bad to happen to him. He'd made her executor of his estate and Tia's legal guardian if something happened to him. Tony had also shown her where he had stashed several large amounts of cash in safety deposit boxes along with handguns. He'd also shown her where he kept a surprising amount of weapons around the apartment, although he'd now made sure they were well out of reach of Tia and the ammo stored separately.

Jessie had learnt to trust Tony's intuitiveness when they'd been partners but she really hoped that this time he was wrong.

* * *

Rising to the Bait

* * *

The older man entered his study which was his inner sanctum and found a plain manila envelope waiting for him on his desk. Seeing where it originated from, his heart started to beat faster. He had been waiting for almost ten years for information, spent a small fortune on investigators and informants, confident that he would eventually find what he was looking for. No one could hide forever and he was a patient man with wide reaching connections and resources. But so far it had all come to naught. Still, he couldn't help hoping that this time finally, he would have a lead. A decade was a long time to stay patient but he wouldn't give up, not until he drew his last breath.

As he opened the envelope and scanned the contents, he felt a dizzying sense of euphoria. He just knew that this time after so many false leads, his quest was almost over. He still needed additional confirmation but it was looking as if the child of Detective Anthony DiNozzo and Philadelphia PD Forensic Technician Melissa Jenkins had indeed resurfaced after all these years. Allowing himself a celebratory drink, he carefully reread the report from his most trusted minion and studied the candid shots of DiNozzo, the child and his former partner Jessie Lawless as they went about their business, unaware of being surveyed.

If these reports were correct, the baby DiNozzo had fathered was a girl child; the age of the child in the photo was seemingly correct but he still required further proof that the child who had suddenly appeared to be living with the ex-cop, who was now a fed, was indeed the NCIS agent's daughter. He sent word to his employee that he required DNA confirmation and to acquire it as a matter of urgency. The man needed ironclad proof before he acted!

* * *

Rising to the Bait

* * *

Ever since Gibbs had told Donald Mallard about the dreadful motor vehicle accident that had befallen Anthony's friend and her family, he had felt sad for the tragic cost on mother and daughter and also cognizant of the impact it would be extracting from the young agent. Poor Anthony seemed to take the death of his female friends very personally and he must have been very close to the child's mother for her to have placed such trust in him. Yet apparently, he was standing up to the strain and his protective and caring nature had again come to the fore as he stepped in and assumed responsibility for the young woman and her daughter. Curiously, his other chum, who according to Gibbs was a former lover who had rekindled their love affair, seemed to have the team leader in a state of anxiety.

Ducky wasn't sure why it was such a terrible thing if Tony had found love again or why Gibbs had been so perturbed about him taking on the care and responsibility for the nine year old girl. When he finally met the delightful Jessica Lawless and Tony's ward Tia Cooper and watched him with them both, he was even more confused. First off, he wasn't convinced that Anthony and Jessica were indeed an item, as people were wont to say these days. He did agree that they were extremely close and seemed to have an easy intimacy and that they both cared deeply for each other and the little girl. What Anthony and Jessica were, quite obviously, were stalwart friends and if they were more than that, well that was a healthy basis for building a relationship and he wished them every happiness. Certainly nothing he could see to get so worked up about.

He'd talked to the Detective Sergeant and she'd revealed that she planned to resign from her job with the Boston Police Department. Jessica was very protective of her friend and extremely supportive of him looking after little Antonia Cooper. She definitely seemed committed to help him care for her, even if God forbid, it should prove to be a permanent situation.

While Jessica was hurting at the situation her best friend was facing, she was more than happy to sing Anthony's praises when it came to the fine job he was doing looking after his god-daughter. Duck was pleased to see for himself that he was doing an excellent job of dealing with the young child who was certainly a beautiful young girl. He noticed that unlike other attempts to relate to youngsters, Anthony didn't try too hard with her. He was extremely natural, kind and gentle and when Antonia was having difficulty coping with her emotions he simply removed her to a quiet spot and comforted her with a matter-a- fact word or two and a cuddle. As Ducky had suspected, his own unfortunate loss of his mother gave him the insight to help the little one deal with her own losses.

Based on what Gibbs had said, Ducky expected him to be overly anxious and running after her, smothering her but that certainly wasn't what he observed. He let the two little girls play together and seemed comfortable with her interacting with other adults, especially Jessica. He had apologised to Ducky for not introducing him to his ward sooner but explained that he didn't want Tia paraded around like a puppy while she was trying to come to terms with all the changes in her life. Ducky recalled some conversations he'd had with the young agent when he'd mentioned how he felt growing up like his raison d'être was to exist as some sort of plaything or trophy. He was rolled out when his parents were entertaining to impress their society friends and relegated to obscurity once he'd played his part.

Ducky could understand how that sort of experience, along with his mother's death could make him especially sensitive to Antonia and her situation. Throw in that she had been part of the Witness Protection Program and involved in a terrible car accident and injured, the fact that Anthony as a cop, had to have seen some horrific accidents and crimes involving children. Finally, that he'd been thrust into the role of a father so suddenly with no warning any over protectiveness was hardly surprising. In fact he would be alarmed if Anthony was toting her around and showing her off to all and sundry.

He always knew that the enigmatic agent masked much of his true nature behind various personas but seeing how he had stepped up to lead the team when Gibbs had taken off for Mexico, Ducky knew well, the dependable man with a core of quiet strength that he was under his many identities. Yet he could see how Jethro might be thrown off balance by his senior field agent's unfamiliar behaviour. He hadn't been there to witness the sterling job he had done. Even his teammates had been too self-involved to notice.

Ducky was impressed that Anthony also seemed to be taking more care of his own health even if it had shocked Jethro to his core. Apparently he had started improving his appalling diet, eating more salads and vegetables, eating home cooked meals and cutting back on takeout. He had also claimed to have reduced his alcohol consumption, sitting on one low alcohol beer and then switching to sparkling water and lime and a small glass of red wine with his meal which Ducky considered to be medicinal because of the Resveratrol it contained. While Jethro acted like his change in drinking habits was disturbing behaviour, Ducky didn't agree at all. He always had Anthony pegged as a social drinker who made a show of drinking but because of both his parents being alcoholic, drank much less than people believed he did. His current behaviour wasn't that bizarre, in Ducky's estimation.

In his humble opinion, Anthony now just had a reason in the guise of a delightful nine year old, to start taking good care of himself. Despite him and his teammates downplaying his degree in physical education, he had studied anatomy and physiology and understood that his lung capacity and impaired immune function made his health more tenuous. He had always been diligent about following a good exercise regime but his diet had been a point of contention between them because he spent so much time on the job. And he never seemed to feel that he deserved to the effort. Now he had obviously realised that he owed it to Antonia to take better care of himself for her sake and her mother's.

Ducky was pleased to hear from Brad that Melissa Cooper's prognosis seemed to be improving. While still requiring a ventilator to breathe for her, she was showing signs of greater brain wave activity, which was an encouraging sign.

Next chapter: Ah the joys of projectile vomiting and a Mallard to the rescue!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I really appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) Nice to see some newbies leaving reviews altho I sometimes think that calling them reviews puts people off so how about we just go with feedback or comments? If you're new to my stories I just wanted to explain that between download constraints atm and working on multiple stories and trying to post on a regular basis I haven't been thanking reviewers individually but I do really appreciate people taking time to give me feedback. It helps with motivation :)

You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Rising to the Bait

Chapter 9

Tony was sitting at the piano in his apartment, unwinding and playing Mozart. Tia was taking a shower before dinner and Jessie was taking some time out on her laptop sending emails. They were not long back from Bethesda after a gruelling therapy session and dinner was cooking in the oven. In the three weeks since they'd returned to DC, Melissa was starting to show small signs of improvement. Brain scans showed an overall reduction in inflammation and bruising and EEG suggested an increase in brain activity. Tia had started reading to her mother for half an hour each day and Tony had been researching about different types of classical music that had been used in helping coma patients. It seemed that Mozart had been much studied by musicologists and many claimed that it had healing qualities. He decided that he'd talk to a music therapist about setting up a proper program and include a selection of classical music

While he was playing softly, a sweet smelling Tia dressed in PJs came and joined him on the piano stool.

When he finished she leaned against him and asked, "Can you teach me to play piano too, Tony?"

He looked at her hands and realised that they looked like his mother's hands. Long fingers, graceful hands, they were a feminised copy of his own pianist hands. His mother had taught him to play when he was small and he thought it was strangely appropriate for him to teach his own child to play too.

"Sure, I can do that Tia. We can start with one hand and when your arm is out of the cast, I'll teach you to play with both hands." He put his arm around her and hugged her, kissing her neck and making her giggle because it tickled her. Then he stood up.

"C'mon let's see if dinner is ready and you can help set the table. What do you want to drink?"

"Can I have soda please?" Tia asked innocently.

Tony rolled his eyes. It was becoming a ritual. She would ask about soda and he would refuse before she chose something else more suitable. "Soda is treat food, kiddo. It isn't everyday food. Pick again."

Tia pouted good-naturedly and Jessie always rolled around laughing at her face because, as she explained in private after the child had gone to bed, Tia's pout was a freaky copy of Tony's and a dead giveaway about the fact that they were related.

"Okay, can I please have some fizzy apple juice then?" she pleaded and smiled winsomely, when Tony nodded his assent.

Tony smirked, thinking that Tia seemed to have inherited his sweet tooth. He was highly amused at the power struggle about her soda craving since he knew as well as she did that there was no soda in the apartment.

As dinner proceeded, he noticed that Tia was just picking at her food. Since she had wanted roasted chicken and vegetables he didn't think that it was the fault of the menu. The little girl wasn't picky about her food, so he was concerned that she was upset about something. Figuring it wouldn't hurt to ask, he bit the bullet.

"Hey Tia, is there any reason why you aren't eating your dinner, kiddo?" He looked at Jessie who shrugged indicating she didn't know what the problem was either.

"I don't feel good, Tony. My throat hurts."

Tony felt a frisson of panic. He held it together but he had no experience with sick kids. He looked at Jessie helplessly, who leant over and felt her forehead.

She looked at Tony is alarm. "She feels pretty hot Tone."

"I feel sick." Tia croaked out pathetically before starting to retch.

Tony leapt up, grabbed his daughter and raced her to the bathroom, not quite reaching the toilet before Tia proceeded to puke up everything that was in her stomach, which fortunately wasn't a lot. Fortunate because she managed to projectile vomit her stomach content to almost the other end of the bathroom before bursting into tears. Jessie appeared with a glass of water and a wet towel and they cleaned up the little girl before hustling her into bed. Tia was upset that she had made a mess and was feeling miserable. He remembered how when he was sick as a kid he just wanted his mother and as her eyes filled with tears, he felt incredibly helpless. Jessie seemed calmer and she explained that her brother's kids had occasionally gotten sick when she had babysat them.

"Okay then that makes you the doctor, Jess. I'll go clean up," he declared, relieved that at least one of them had a clue what they were doing, as he tried to extricate himself from the clutches of one small girl, who was clinging to him like a limpet.

"I want to get the thermometer kiddo and measure your temperature, like when you were in the hospital," he explained to the child who had already managed to wrap him firmly around her little finger.

"Tony stay with me, please?" she pleaded pitifully. "I wish my Momma was here." It was the first time that she had cried for her mother since that horrific day in the hospital and it made Tony and Jess feel sad for her.

Jessie shook her head and said, "Looks like you are the doctor, Tone. I'll go get the thermometer. Is it in the bathroom cabinet?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Tony realised it was an old fashioned type and that he would have to remember to get a kid friendly one at the drugs store next time he went in. Slipping it under Tia's tongue they waited until it beeped before Jessie took it out and pursed her lips.

"It's 101.5 I think. Is that bad?"

Tony looked at her. "I was sort of hoping you'd know Jess. It's kinda bad if you're an adult. It's a fever but it's not quite time to bring out the cooling pads just yet, although I don't really know about kids." He sat thinking. The paediatrician that Brad had recommended didn't have an opening until next week. He didn't think she'd do a house call and the panicking new parent wondered if Brad was busy because he knew he'd come if he could. He was just getting ready to call him when Jessie mouthed 'Ducky.'

Reaching for his phone out of his pocket, he scrolled down his speed dial, hoping to catch the medical examiner before he left the Naval Yard.

Ducky was delighted that they'd asked for his help and when he heard that Tia had a fever he recommended they try to lower her temperature by sponging her with some cool water and a dose of Tylenol. Then he promised to be there as soon as he could. Tony hung up and asked Jess to get the children's Tylenol from the kitchen to try to bring down her temperature.

"Ducky also said to give her a sponge down with cool water until he gets here." He reported quietly. Can we get her into some cool PJs?"

Jessie nodded, "Good thinking. I'll go get what we need. See if you can take her top off, Tone."

He got started, working her top over her head while she clung to his t-shirt and he realised how hot she was. He couldn't believe how quickly she'd gotten sick. She'd seemed fine when she had come out of the shower just a short time ago and now she was burning up with fever. It was scary and he was glad Jessie was here. She bustled in with cool water, a pile of clean towels, a bottle of children's Tylenol and a measuring syringe. They persuaded her to take a dose of the medicine and Tony noticed that Jess had also brought in a bowl in case Tia was sick again.

After finding a tank top and shorts, she helped Tia to change her long pants for summer short ones while Tony averted his eyes. They left off her top and started sponging her down as she tried to bat the wet towel away. When the doorbell rang, he tried to get up to go to the door but Tia was absolutely determined not to let go of him, so Jessie slipped out to let Ducky in. Once she had shown him into Tia's room, he instantly calmed the trio with his composed, unruffled bedside manner. He commenced his examination of Tia, noting how she was hanging onto Tony, and his heart, like the other adults, broke knowing that the child would be pining for her mother.

After observing that her temperature had climbed up to 102 he suggested that they sponge her down again enquiring if they had any ice packs should her fever rise higher. He suspected that the injury-prone agent would have some in the freezer and, if not, he would send Jessie out to get some ice. After checking her throat and palpating her stomach he offered his opinion that it was probably just a bug, something she could have picked up in the hospital. He wanted to know how long it was since they'd given her the Tylenol and reassured them that it should start working any time now. Realising how panicked they both were, which was in turn communicating itself to Tia, Ducky embarked on a story. He entertained them all telling them about how he had gotten sick when he was a lad at Eton and had Matron looking after him, who had insisted he take an ice bath. Gradually his mellifluous voice and calm demeanour soothed the fractious child and she dozed off.

Seeing that she was resting, he suggested that they have nice cup of tea and then take her temperature again.

"Thanks Ducky, for coming. She was fine before dinner and then she said she wasn't feeling well and then she started feeling sick and next thing she was puking. So do we need to take her to the hospital or something?" Tony asked, still feeling anxious.

"Ducky smiled at him gently. "Not at this stage Anthony, I think we have this covered. As long as we can get some fluid into her and she can keep it down and we stay on top of her fever, she is better off here. And now that you have a nine year old to care for, you will find that youngsters have a tendency to fall ill very dramatically and rapidly but also rebound just as quickly." He patted his arm solicitously and stood up to head out to the kitchen.

"Hey Jessie, can you make Ducky a cup of tea? Why don't you finish off your dinner and maybe Ducky would like something to eat too? I'll stay here with her so I don't wake her up." He leant back against the headboard and closed his eyes and breathed slowly and deeply, hoping that her fever would start coming down soon.

When Ducky and Jess returned about twenty minutes later, they took her temperature again. It had come down to 100.5 which relieved Tony and Jess. Ducky recommended that they wake her and try to get a little fluid into her and sponge her down again and then see if she would sleep for a few hours. Ducky watched as they encouraged the sleepy child to drink a small amount of water with an electrolytes sachet mixed in that Jess had found in the bathroom cabinet. After sponging her down again, she settled and drifted back off to sleep, finally letting go of Tony and they managed to persuade him to come out for a while and finish his meal.

The three of them sat eating the roast chicken that Jessie had reheated and Ducky looked at Tony.

"I have a confession to make, Anthony. Young Mr Palmer overheard me talking to you and now he knows that you have returned to DC. I suspect he'll be getting in touch with you soon, dear boy. My sincere apologies I'm afraid."

"Don't worry about it Ducky. You were doing us a favour and truthfully, I don't really mind if Jimmy knows about Tia. He's a good guy and I've been tempted to give him a call a couple of times but I didn't want to put him in an awkward position. He is buds with Abby and while I don't even mind her knowing about Tia now that she is a bit more settled and bonding with us, she still insists we are all one big happy family. Even if she promised not to tell Ziva and Tim about Tia, Abby totally sucks at keeping secrets." He was silent for a minute before asking Ducky, "Can you ask him not to mention to anyone that I'm back yet and I'll call him tomorrow?"

"I understand why you don't want Antonia overwhelmed with lots of strangers. Let's face it, our team is full of eccentric, and one could even argue, quite dysfunctional individuals. And I agree that Abby, though well –meaning, might be rather intimidating with her exuberance and demonstrativeness for young Antonia as she is trying to adjust. But is it feasible to expect that you will be able to keep it quiet about Tia and the delightful Miss Lawless once you return to work? What if she gets sick and you have to run off at a moment's notice. They're all going to get suspicious, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I know but it's just that once people know about her, she's going to be put in danger from all the dirtbags that want to get even with me. And apart from the whole revenge thing and everyone getting lots of mileage out of DiNozzo looking after a kid, the environment on the team isn't exactly something that I want Tia exposed to. I'm used to being put down, after all Senior was a champion at derision, but I don't want to repeat my childhood with Tia especially when Jess and I are trying so hard to establish a relationship with her, when she's effectively lost both her parents."

Ducky nodded, "Our new Director has a lot to answer for after disbanding your team. The dynamics are quite unhealthy at times."

Tony snorted. "The dynamics have been off since Gibbs took off and came back and left and came back again. It got worse after they found out I was working under cover and it totally tanked when I got Jenny killed. I'm wondering if I should find a new team, Ducky?"He noticed the ME's startled expression and explained

"Ziva's pissed with me because I don't want to sleep with her, although why she would want to have a relationship with someone she thinks is a joke and whose orders she deliberately ignores, is beyond me. McGee is torn between being happy to regain his position as a field agent on the high status MCRT but he's pissed off too. He's not giving the orders and getting the adulation and the status of the unofficial team leader of the cyber geeks anymore. So he takes out his frustration by being insubordinate and deliberately cutting to me whenever he opens his mouth. It's getting old."

He stood up and excused himself to go and check on Tia again.

Jessie looked at Ducky. "I haven't met these people Ducky, apart from Gibbs, but I saw what Tone was like when I caught up with him earlier this year. He was in a really bad place and frankly, he's still very fragile. Having to cope with all this," she waved a hand indicating the changes that had been sprung on him, "I'm frankly super impressed with how he's coping and being strong for us. But part of why he is coping is because he isn't coming in contact with all the toxic crap that he's had to deal with at work."

Ducky nodded thoughtfully. "True Jessica, he has had an inordinately difficult time of late. I know he hated being Agent Afloat and he lost two dear friends in the line of duty, fell in love unintentionally, almost died and was framed twice for murder. All while his team has been far from supportive. They were furious that he managed to work undercover for almost a year right under their noses without them twigging to it. They hated that he was able to do his regular job as well. They have childishly made him suffer for being too good at what he does."

He seemed to consider his words carefully. "And now he has had another life changing happenstance thrust upon him and he is coping admirably. But I take your point that it will be a different story when he returns to NCIS, unless the team dynamics improve rather markedly. You have been quite the panacea for him, my dear child. You were his partner when you worked in Philadelphia?"

Jessie looked surprised. "How did you know that? Did T tell you?"

The medical examiner chuckled, "No Jessica, but you and Anthony communicate without words like he does with Gibbs. You are obviously very close, although unlike Gibbs, I don't necessarily believe you two are an item. Nor do I think that you were back in Philadelphia either. I do think that your closeness however, might explain why Gibbs seems to be threatened by you and young Antonia coming along. "

She didn't confirm or deny Ducky's observations about whether she and Tony were in a relationship. It was no one's business but she did pick up on the bit about Gibbs feeling threatened.

"I don't know Gibbs but Tone has gone on ad nauseum about how great his boss is with kids. He feels quite inadequate by comparison, yet I've been curious about the fact that Tia hasn't taken to Gibbs like she did with you or Fornell or even Brad. I did wonder if he was jealous of her or if maybe Tia had picked up on my anger at him. As you have guessed, we were partners in Philly back when he was just a baby Dee and as far as I'm concerned, when Gibbs came back and chucked Tone out of the job leading the team the way he did, he had a responsibility to look out for Tony that he hasn't fulfilled. He was a real mess when I found him again and that's inexcusable and I mostly blame Gibbs for not controlling his team."

"Perhaps you're right, my dear. He has been rather strange about this situation. I think that he has always rather taken Anthony's loyalty for granted and now that he has a real family that he is responsible for, Gibbs is realising that Anthony's priorities are no longer just to the team or even to Jethro anymore. The lad has always been the one to care for everyone else on our team and I am not at all surprised that he has stepped up the way he has with Antonia and her mother."

"Speaking of, Ducky, maybe we should see if they are alright and then what say I make us another cup of tea?"

Beaming, Ducky stood up. "A very excellent suggestion, dear girl; lead on."

* * *

~ Rising to the Bait ~

* * *

Jacques sipped his espresso and polished of his cheese burger and fries, disconsolately. He'd tried to get into the apartment to get a DNA sample but DiNozzo was too damned smart. The lock he had installed on his door was a difficult one to pick and when he'd decided to have a crack at it, he'd spied a miniature security camera trained on the front door. Luckily he notice it before he tried to pick the lock and he'd decided to pretend that he'd come to the wrong apartment.

He'd knocked at the door, well knowing that there was no one home since he'd seen DiNozzo, his girlfriend and the kid leave a while ago. Miming looking at the apartment number and grimacing in disgust he'd wandered up the hallway, knocking on the door of the apartment closest to the elevator. The door opened and a woman who was tall and thin stood regarding him warily.

"Afternoon, M'am. Was looking for a friend of mine named Barry Jacobsen? Someone said he lived in this building."

The woman Mavis Patterson who just happened to be the building's resident busybody frowned at him. "Well I'm afraid that you have been misled. We don't have anyone by that name residing in this building," she stated authoritatively before closing her door again.

Now back in his car considering the problem about how he was going to get a DNA sample to confirm the kid's identity and keep his boss happy, Jacques frowned. Life would be so much easier if they lived in a house and he could rifle through their trash or they made the brat go to school and he could cosy up to her. At this rate they would need to get up close and personal with the trio and that would take some doing because the ex-cop was not the most trusting SOB. Personally, he didn't see why they couldn't just snatch her and then get the DNA sample but the boss was adamant.

And he who paid the piper got to call the tunes, he supposed.

Next Chapter: Jimmy and Tia play doctor and Palmer's not just an autopsy gremlin.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I really appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) Nice to see some newbies leaving reviews although I think that calling them reviews maybe puts people of leaving themf so how about we just go with feedback or comments? If you're new to my stories I just wanted to explain that between download constraints atm and working on multiple stories and trying to post on a regular basis I haven't been thanking reviewers individually but I do really appreciate people taking time to give me feedback. It helps with motivation :)

You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Rising to the Bait

Chapter 10

Ducky hung around for several hours until Tia's fever had broken. The elderly doctor wanted to be sure that she was over the worst of the bug since it was clear that Tony was very anxious and Jessie was only marginally less apprehensive. They were both extremely grateful that he stayed with them and held their hands and Tony was wasn't too proud to admit Tia had scared him witless with how quickly she got sick.

He questioned how parents coped with the anxiety of wondering if their kids were okay because he wanted to wrap her in cotton wool so she never got sick or was put in danger. He knew that it was partly because he and Jessie in their jobs got to see the worst side of people and knew how vulnerable children were to harm. The problem was though, that he wasn't sure how to deal with it and not become one of those helicopter parents who hovered over their kids constantly. Still he supposed that over protective was better than not caring about your kid and having the hired help and boarding school raise your own flesh and blood.

After an uneventful night, Tia was better but lethargic and not interested in breakfast. Tony broke out the DVDs of the Black Stallion and the Hailey Mills version of Pollyanna that he'd found online and tucked her up on the sofa to rest with pillows and her blanket. While Jessie decided to go for a run he hopped onto his lap top and checked his email. Brad had sent him a heads up that he might have found a possible property for him to check out and he sent Ducky with an update about Tia. He also did his daily check of various realtor sites and found a couple of prospects that he rang and enquired about. They had been looking at a few houses but hadn't found anything suitable yet.

He had talked to Jessie about Jimmy Palmer and they had decided to invite him over for dinner tonight. He knew that Jimmy would be cool and would understand why he was reluctant to tell his teammates since he had been enormously supportive when Tony had taken over the lead and then helped pick up the pieces when Gibbs decided he didn't want to be retired anymore. He was mentally figuring out what to cook for dinner that would appeal a sickly nine year old appetite and also have a low Glycaemic Index for Jimmy's diabetes, when a hot and sweaty Jessie arrived back from her run.

After Jessie had taken a shower, he told her about the place Brad had seen and the two he'd found today. One of them needed to stay with Tia and the other to check out the places. It was a tiresome chore, looking at houses. At first it had been fun but as Ducky would say, the gilt was definitely off the gingerbread after hanging out with realtor for a bit. Jessie agreed to go and look at the properties. Gibbs had a whole heap of rules concerning lawyers but Tony decided that his own set of rules which were much briefer than his boss, would definitely contain one about never trusting a real estate agent since lying seemed to be their natural state of being. He was starting to think he needed the services of a professional property buyer to do the searching for him.

* * *

~ Rising to the Bait ~

* * *

Jessie was really hoping that one of the prospects she was looking at would be suitable. Most of Tony's neighbours were friendly but not intrusive. They had welcomed Tia and herself and seemed pleased when Tony had come home from two weeks in Arizona. Many of the older residents seemed pleased to have a federal agent in the building and he was happy to look out for the oldies. It was no surprise to Jessie that he had lots of white haired grannies catering to his sweet tooth, baking him cookies, brownies and cakes. But there was one old busybody who lived down the hall from Tony who made Jessie's skin crawl. Her apartment was opposite the elevator and she kept her eye on everyone coming and going.

Mavis Patterson didn't stop at peering out her front door to see who was coming and going. She sidled up to people and tried to worm information out of them and, given any encouragement, would gossip about other residents. As a detective, Jessie had seen hundreds of Mavis Patterson's. At a crime scene, a Mavis Patterson was worth her weight in gold, cops always prayed that there was a resident busybody that they could pump for information but, hypocritical at is seemed, Jessie did not want to have to live in the same building as one. It made her feel like she didn't have any privacy and while she was sickeningly sweet to Tia and to Jessie, she made her feel very creepy when she was around.

Sure enough, as she waited for the elevator, Mavis' door cracked open and she peered around the door the cop waved to her.

"Hey Mavis how are you today?" She asked, gaily.

Obviously Mavis was used to people ignoring her because she didn't reply but responded by slamming the door and the cop grinned. She decided that from here on in she would go on the offensive and beat Mavis at her own game. She would start pumping her for information and see how she liked it. Giggling as the elevator clunked its way down ground level, she jogged to the car and entered the addresses into her Sat Nav before heading off, hoping that one of the houses would be what they were looking for.

She was looking forward to meeting Ducky's assistant tonight. Jimmy was Tony's friend and he sounded like a really nice guy. According to Tone he had been supportive through some difficult times when his team mates decided to kick him when he was down. She was looking forward to giving them a piece of her mind one day soon. Her Tone had always been insecure, courtesy of his upbringing but she had been shocked at how broken he'd been when she finally reunited with him earlier this year. As if he hadn't already had more than enough to deal with in his life, it sounded like his life had been little short of Dante's nine levels of Hell since he'd come to DC. She would bet her detectives pension that his team, his so called 'family' hadn't had to deal with an iota of the traumas and tragedies that he had and still become the empathetic person who was an immoveable rock in a crisis.

She wondered if she ended up working at the FBI, would Tony be persuaded to follow her. Tobias had been open with her about the fact he had been trying to recruit Tony for years, despite having to investigate him twice as a murder suspect. Tobias had organised for her to have a job interview even though she exceeded the maximum age requirement for being hired as an FBI agent. He claimed that exceptions could be made, especially for someone who was not applying for entry level positions. They were always looking to recruit good people with middle management skills and he winked at her, saying he could argue that she had already been working for the FBI with DiNotzo when they captured Mike Macaluso earlier in the year. Since she was working unsanctioned while T was on secondment to the Fibbies and Tobias has taken the credit for the capture of a high level convicted criminal, he did sort of owe them. She figured it was fair enough.

* * *

~ Rising to the Bait ~

* * *

Jimmy arrived promptly at 1830 and Tony opened the door and welcomed him in with a rough hug.

"Good to see you Gremlin," he grinned.

Jimmy smirked, "Back at ya Tony. What's with all the secrecy? Are you in trouble or danger?" he asked nervously.

"Not exactly Jimmy me boy, more like out of my depth. C'mon in and meet everyone. Want a beer?" He led him into the apartment where Jessie and Tia were curled up on the sofa listening to Tia read out loud. Seeing Jimmy's shocked expression he supposed they were the last people Jimmy was expecting to meet.

"Hey guys, say hallo to my good friend Jimmy Palmer, James this is my friend Detective Sergeant Jessie Lawless and Tia Cooper. Jess and I are Tia's godparents and she will be staying with me while her mom is sick in hospital. Her mother made me her power-of-attorney and I'm also Tia's legal guardian."

"Wow, that's massive Tony! Pleased to meet you both, any friend of Tony's is one of mine too. So which one of you did Ducky go tearing out of the office for, yesterday?"

Jessie smiled at the tall bespectacled young man. "That would be our Tia here. Nice to meet you too, Jimmy. I've heard a lot of good things about you."

Tony chuckled as Jimmy blushed bright red. There were times when the autopsy gremlin reminded him of Oppie from the Andy Griffith Show with his aww shucks mien.

"Umm thanks Jessie. So Tia, how are you feeling today?" he asked slipping into medical student mode.

Tia looked at him shyly. "I'm feeling better but my throat still hurts, Jimmy. "

"I can have a look at it if you like."

Tony saw the confused look on Tia's face and smirked. "Jimmy is going to medical school, learning to be a doctor, kiddo. He's almost finished and he's always looking for people to practise on so maybe after dinner he can look at your throat for you?"

"Oh okay… have you got a setoscope… um a stethoscope and a light to look at my throat Jimmy?" Tia wanted to know.

"Sure they're in a bag in my car. I hope you have been drinking heaps today?"

"Yeah, Jessie and Tony made me drink a lot all day."

Tony looked at Tia. "We are having shrimp curry and rice, kidlet. Are you going to eat any or would you like some more of the chicken noodle soup that Jessie made for your lunch?"

"Can I have some soup, please and some soda?" she requested slyly.

Her father rolled his eyes. "Sure thing Sweets and no, Tia, soda is sometimes food. Besides the bubbles would hurt your throat, pick again."

She pouted, "Okay some orange juice but can I have some ice cream too?" she grinned.

"We'll see, Miss. Finish your reading with Jessie and Jimmy and I will put the basmati rice on to cook."

Jimmy smiled, "Hey Tony, you remembered about the rice." He saw Jessie's confusion. "I'm diabetic and basmati rice has a lower Glycaemic Index unlike some other varieties," he explained as he followed Tony into the kitchen as he heard Tia ask…

"What's a diabetic, Jessie?"

As he followed Tony to the kitchen his head was spinning.

"As Abby would say Tony, OMG! But why all the secrecy?"

Tony lowered his voice. "It's complex Jimmy. Tia and her family were part of the Witness Protection Program and the family were in a MVA with a drunk driver. Tia's dad was killed and Mel is in a coma with head injuries. I had to fly out to make medical decisions and assume custody of Tia. Jess is also Mel's best friend and Tia's godmother. If anything happens to me, she steps in and takes over responsibility and given my job that's always a possibility. We've both been in Tucson Arizona where Mel was placed."

"Oh wow Tony that's massive. Will Tia's mother recover?"

"The doctor in Tucson was pretty pessimistic but the doctors at Bethesda, where we had her airlifted, are more optimistic. Her level of coma has lightened slightly and we're following a rigorous sensory-perceptual therapy program with her and she's having physical therapy too."

Jimmy looked surprised. "You brought her back to DC?"

"Yeah, once she was stabilised from the emergency brain surgery. We've been back three weeks. I'm sorry I didn't call sooner but there's the whole WPP business. Although it's been deemed a very low threat since the risk was neutralised earlier this year, there are no iron clad guarantees that they are completely safe so I'm still being cautious. But I'm also freaking out because I'm worried that people I've put away over the years will try and get back at me through Jess, Mel or worst of all through Tia. I mean, what if some dirtbag like Ari targets her?" He looked at his friend hoping he wasn't angry that he'd been kept in the dark.

"At the risk of sounding like an airhead, that's just too massive. What a nightmare to have to deal with. How are you doing anyway?"

"Hanging in there I guess but barely, Black Lung. I go to bed every night and have a meltdown. Last night when Tia got sick I had my panic attack in full view of the girls and Ducky. I couldn't believe she was fine one minute and the next she's puking her guts up and feverish." He looked at his friend.

"That's another big part of why I don't want to tell people… okay McGee and Ziva about Tia. They'll think it is all a huge joke, me looking after her and probably make lots of cracks about how I'll screw her up. I'm already freaking out about that. I don't need their input. You know I never had a chance to see how parents were supposed to behave. And I don't want to overwhelm her with strangers when she needs to bond with Jessie and I, cuz we are kind of strangers too and I don't really don't want her hearing all the putdowns. How's she supposed to respect me when McGee and Ziva have more respect for the janitor than me?" he demanded looking troubled.

"Hey Tony, don't sweat it. I understand why you want to keep what's happened on the QT. Can't say as I blame you. I reckon I'd do the same thing in your shoes but I'd also be a massive wreck. It's one hell of a lot to contend with. I think you're doing a great job, but then again you're a good guy Tony and what those two idiots think, doesn't amount to hill load of beans in this crazy world."

Tony grinned, "Ah Gremlin, quoting Rick from one of my favourite movies. Here's looking at you, kid!"

After dinner, Jimmy fetched his doctor's bag from the car and listened to Tia's lungs, checked her temperature and her throat and palpated her tummy and pronounced her almost better. He suggested that some honey might help her sore throat and asked her if she wanted to use his stethoscope and he showed her how to listen for her heartbeat and then she had to listen to all of theirs too. Tony looked at his watch and told Tia she could pick a board game to play before bed and she chose Chutes and Ladders and went to her bedroom to find it. Tony warned that she might have a mini meltdown because her dad had given her the game for her last birthday.

Jimmy couldn't help wondering how Tony and Jessie were dealing with the little girl's grief and sure enough when she returned with the game, her cheeks were tearstained and she came and climbed on top of Tony. He wrapped his arms around her and held her while she cried and Jessie filled in the gap by asking Jimmy about his diabetes and where he lived. The autopsy gremlin was actually pretty impressed with how Jessie and Tony coped with the child's tears.

When she finally dried her eyes and seemed embarrassed to have cried in front of a stranger, Jessie leaned over and gave both of them a group hug as she told her,

"Hey what did Tony tell you, sweet girl?"

She sniffled, hiccupped and Tony reached for a tissue to help her blow her nose. "He said that it's okay to be sad and cry because I'm missing Dad," she parroted, looking at Jimmy sheepishly.

"Yeah," Tony nodded, "And Jimmy knows what that feels like too, because he lost his dad when he was growing up."

"Like you when you lost your mom, Tony?"

"Yep, that's right kiddo. You want to show Jimmy the photos of your parents?"

Tia nodded and grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the shelf where the two portrait sized photos that Tony had brought from Tucson had taken pride of place beside a photo of the team, and two others of Caitlyn Todd and Paula Cassidy respectively.

After Tia had gone to bed, Tony and Jessie talked about Tia's mother, Melissa and her prognosis, the program they had set up and their plans to bring her home. Jimmy was interested in the therapy and volunteered to help them, knowing that the more assistance they had the more effective the results were likely to be. He suggested that he could ask around at medical school and see if there were other medical students that might be interested in helping out and getting valuable experience. He suggested if they could get enough volunteers they could form a roster, especially if they needed to keep it up for any length of time to take some of the stress off Tony and Jessie. Tony nodded and said it was a good idea, since soon they would both need to think about returning to work.

He also explained to Jimmy how they were looking for a house they could purchase and set up to cater for all their needs and he promised to keep his eyes and ears open. He also offered to put up some notices up in the Education faculty at college for a childcare worker. Jimmy also suggested asking around at various church groups for a child-carer. Tony had explained that the plan was to have someone who could live-in when needed since Jessie and his work schedule was so erratic. Although, Jessie's work hours were much more predicable as she was in more of a supervisory role. He announced, looking at Jessie proudly, that she had been invited to interview for several positions of lieutenant as well as her current rank of detective sergeant since she'd already passed her lieutenant' exam back in Boston.

Jessie decided to make coffee and when she left, Tony looked at Jimmy. "Okay Black Lung, what are you busting a gut trying not to mention?"

Jimmy looked at him, shocked. "What are you talking about?"

"C'mon James, I make a living reading people and you have something on your mind. So spit it out!"

"Okay that's freaky Tony, you trying to channel Gibbs or something?"

"Nope, and stop trying to distract me either. I learnt how to do that before I learnt to walk, so it doesn't work on me. What's on your mind?"

"Okay, well I guess I'll just spit it out then… hey? Umm er does Tia know you're her father?"

* * *

~ Rising to the Bait ~

* * *

Ensa Jacques was sending off an update to his boss. The guy was seriously pissed that he hadn't managed to get a DNA sample yet. Of course Ensa's boss wasn't prepared to get his own hands dirty either and Jacques wasn't willing to get charged with breaking and entering which was the most likely outcome if he tried to get a sample from DiNozzo's apartment. They just had to get more creative but it was difficult because the SOB was paranoid and highly protective of the brat. Of course it would be easier if he was just an average Joe but he was an ex- cop and now a fed and his girlfriend was also a cop or at least a former one. One thing he knew, both of them were armed when they were with the kid and the kid was never alone. One of them was with her at all times and it was pissing him off.

The other thing that was frustrating them was that it was if DiNozzo knew that they were being watched. He was stopping to look around constantly and his hand seemed almost itching to pull out his gun. The guy was on constant alert and it was going to make things very difficult if the boss ordered them to snatch the little brat. So he'd decided that they would need to get creative.

There were limited opportunities to get the DNA sample so he'd recruited an accomplice to befriend the trio. They had quite a few watchers on the payroll and none of them had, up until now, managed to close enough to get the damned sample. One of the crew had finally come up with a plan that seemed to be a goer. They'd been plodding along for almost a week now and hopefully in the next day or two, they would finally get the sample that they needed to prove the paternity of Tia Cooper.

Next chapter: Jessie and Tia visit NCIS, Tia makes a new friend and Jessie, hmm... not so much lol.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I really appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) Nice to see some newbies leaving reviews although I think that calling them reviews maybe puts people off leaving them so how about we just go with feedback or comments instead? If you're new to my stories I just wanted to explain that between download constraints atm and working on multiple stories and trying to post on a regular basis I haven't been thanking reviewers individually but I do really appreciate people taking time to give me feedback. It helps with motivation :)

You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Um... *shuffles much embarrassed* time for me to fess up to a faux pas re the spoiler for last chapter. I posted it unfortunately without checking like I normally do and got a little ahead of myself and incorrectly spoiled you all, I''m afraid about the next chapter which is unfortunately chapter 12. So I'm sorry about that but I hope you enjoy this chapter anyway! And also in the previous chapter, someone pointed out that I had made a typo stating that basmati rice was low GI when it should have read that it was lower GI (than other varieties.) It's classified as moderate GI although we do have a genuine low GI rice available in Oz. Thanks for the pickup :)

We are in the midst of bush fires here in Oz as I type. The whole state of New South Wales is under siege and there are two fires burning close by and the air is thick with smoke from the last two days. Most of my family are also in the midst of two of the worst fires burning out of control elsewhere but so far everyone is safe even if it's been a pretty tense couple of days. We know a lot of people who have lost their homes which at last count, number over 200 houses gone and many more damaged and the danger isn't over yet. My condolences to everyone who has lost their homes and their pets and we are praying that the expected bad weather for the next few days fails to eventuate. There aren't enough superlatives to describe the firefighters so I'll just say- great job guys!

Rising to the Bait

Chapter 11

* * *

~Previously on Switching Lives~

* * *

"Okay, well I guess I'll just spit it out then… hey? Umm… er… does Tia know you're her father?"

And now:

Tony didn't even blink. "What would give you that idea Jimmy?"

"Because, Tia pouts just like you do and her smile is like yours, she has your hands and she is the dead spit of the photo of your mother that used to sit up there on the shelf where Tia's photos are now. I guess you took it down so no one would notice." He looked at his friend, hoping he hadn't stepped too far over the line.

Tony looked at Jessie who had come back into the living room in time to hear Jimmy's bombshell, and shrugged at her. "Looks like you were right about the photo pardna! And the pout. But I don't see it myself since I don't pout," he stated firmly, pouting. "And the hands. Well Jimmy plays piano and he is studying to be a doctor. I guess he notices things like that." He extended his hands, "It's a clear case of pianist's envy," he declared wistfully, ignoring the choking and spluttering of his audience, "I've been told my hands are the those of a prodigy," he joked, trying not to show how much he was panicking to have his secret so easily penetrated.

He looked at Jessie before going to check that Tia was sound asleep. When he came back, assured that she wouldn't hear their conversation, he sat down again and wrapped his arm around Jessie while he talked.

"No Jimmy, she doesn't know who I am. And I don't want her to either. At least not at the moment. Before you ask why, I'll tell you. She is trying to deal with her grief at losing the man who has been in every way but one, her dad for eight of her nine years. And to have to deal with the truth at this point, especially while her mother is in a coma, is too much for a little girl to cope with. So please, keep this information to yourself. And then there is the question of security. If people know she is my biological daughter, she instantly becomes a target, even more so than if she is simply my ward."

"So you… were with Melissa?"

Jessie chimed in, "They were engaged, Jimmy. And then when the Mike Macaluso case broke and he vowed to get even with Tony for putting him away, it was decided that Melissa needed to go into Witness Protection to protect Tia. We were all sharing an apartment and were close friends. Tia's mom was a forensic scientist and she worked at the Philly PD too. Tony was my partner before he went undercover with the Macalusos, " she explained.

Jimmy had heard about the Macaluso Don when Tony was framed for murder by that utter whack job 'Chip' Sterling. He'd gone home once it was all over and searched on the internet for more information about the case. He'd learnt that it had been a huge achievement for such a young detective and it had certainly created a stir in the law enforcement world. Tony had moved on to the Baltimore PD not long afterwards and Jimmy now knew why.

"Why didn't you go into the Witness Protection program too Tony?"

Before he could respond, Jessie leapt in again. "Jimmy, as cops we know damned well that when the mob decides to track you down, even WP isn't able to guarantee your safety. Tony hoped that if he stayed out in the open, Mike and his minions would focus on him if they decided to make good the death threats. He changed cities to make it look like he was running away. We all hoped that since few people knew they were engaged and even fewer that Melissa was pregnant, that they wouldn't bother looking for her."

"That's what you meant about the threat being deemed minimal? I mean he's dead, right?"

"Yeah Jimmy, he's dead but there is a small chance one of his thugs might try and avenge him. There's incontrovertible evidence that he broke out of prison, at least to some extent, to come after me after his sole surviving son died and it pushed him over the edge." Tony explained as he avoided looking at Jessie.

"Lucky you were Agent Afloat then. I mean, there wasn't much that was good about that time but at least you were out of harm's way."

He missed the ironic look that transpired between the two conspirators. While they were under orders from Director Vance not to discuss Macaluso's capture since he'd deemed it classified information, it was also in their best interest for any stray Macaluso family left, not to know that they had trapped the former Don who was then killed by the FBI. As long as their participation remained classified, it also served to protect them and now by extension, Melissa and Tia too. Luckily, few FBI personnel knew the identity of Tony and Jessie and even though Leon's desire for the information to remain classified was due to blatant self-interest, they were happy enough to remain anonymous. Most especially since the Cooper's car accident meant his three VIPs had re-entered Tony's life.

"Oh yeah, I was really lucky. I owe the Director big time." Tony tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Anyway, now you know why I'm freaking out big time."

Jimmy shook his head, struggling to wrap his mind around it. "At the risk of repeating myself…wow! That's a lot to take in… a lot to handle. Apart from you two, who else knows about you being Tia's dad, Tony?"

"A few people in the Federal Marshals and a handful of people in the FBI and Brad Pitt."

"What about at NCIS?" Jimmy probed.

"Nada, Gibbs and Ducky know she is my ward and Vance and the HR department have been informed too but none of them know she is really my daughter. The easiest way to keep a secret is to not tell anyone." Tony leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes, clearly exhausted and distressed.

Jimmy frowned. "I can understand why you didn't tell anyone you were back and why you don't want the terrible twins to know about her either, since they haven't exactly earned your trust lately, but if you try and keep her existence secret and they find out eventually, they might start digging to find out what else you're hiding."

Tony didn't open his eyes. "Good point, Jimmy. Gibbs can't understand why I'm so against them knowing and Ducky reckons that sooner or later it will come out. I just don't want her hearing all their snide remarks, ya know?"

Jimmy did know. He often wanted to smack the pair when they decided to use Tony to take out their own frustrations. He was also frequently annoyed with Special Agent Gibbs and the lack of respect he afforded his second in command. He thanked his lucky stars that Ducky didn't treat him that way. He couldn't imagine constantly getting head slapped, yelled at and having his contributions belittled.

"Yeah and I can't blame you but what if you come into work and bring her along and introduce her that way as your ward? Then she doesn't need to spend time in a social environment with anyone unless you chose to. Nobody can take offense if you explain that she has enough on her plate and you don't want her stressed. If Jessie comes too, everyone will be just as focused on her, maybe more so."

Jessie joined in. "He's right, Tone. Gibbs thinks we are together, although Ducky doesn't seem convinced about us. Not hiding her but protecting her socially is a better method of hiding in plain sight."

Tony sighed. "Yeah, I guess you guys are right. I just want to wrap her up in bubble wrap so nothing bad ever happens to her ever again. I can't help but feel like I'm putting her in danger."

Jessie hugged him violently and Jimmy thought of Abby with her hugs. "It's a dad thing, I'm sure it's normal. Tobias says he has similar fears too. Cops see so much ugliness but just remember that we are also better equipped to keep her safe too, Tone."

Jimmy watched the two former partners and noticed that they had that same freaky thing going on that Tony did with Gibbs… well they used to have - where they could have a conversation with looks and Gibbs grunts. Okay, Jessie clearly didn't grunt of course, she was quite verbose but they still didn't need words. They were more two parts of a whole, like a duet where they didn't replicate but complemented each other. Where together, they were more than the sum of their parts than when separate. Whatever his fears and neuroses, Black Lung decided that Tony still looked way happier than he could remember him being for a long, long time.

"Have you two stayed in touch since Philadelphia?" he asked curiously.

Jessie looked sad. "After Melissa went into WPP it hurt too much…too many memories. Tony went to Baltimore and later that year I moved to Boston. We ran into each other again earlier this year and then he called me when he heard about the accident."

* * *

~ Rising to the Bait ~

* * *

Tony found his jacket and Tia's in the hall closet and called to his daughter to hurry up so they could go to the park. Although they were limited by the activities they could do at the park because of her fractured arm, she loved them to push her on the swings and she loved playing with the neighbourhood dogs at the park. He had promised her that when they moved to their new place, she could get a puppy and maybe a kitten. He remembered how he had really wanted a pet when he was a kid and begged his parents but all that they would let him own was some sea monkeys that met a tragic end at the hands of his mother.

While technically he had a pony, like the numerous horses that belonged to his equestrian loving mother, he wasn't allowed to spend time with it, apart from his bi-weekly riding lesson and an occasional recreational ride with his mother. When he went to the stable to try and sneak carrots and apples to his pony, to try and groom him with a body brush and simply to play with Starshine, the grooms always chased him away and he was disciplined by his parents for annoying the help and upsetting the horses. In the end he gave up trying to spend time with Star and he still had negative associations about all things horsey.

He recalled his horror trip with Gibbs a few months before to Arizona and how appalled he was when he found out where he was going and even worse that horses were also involved. While he was nowhere near Mel, Tia and Dennis, being in the same state as them was still too close for comfort. Not that he was worried about bumping into them since Arizona was a huge empty space but propinquity meant that being the closest he had been to them since Melissa left Philly, especially since the death of Macaluso and that threat had diminished greatly, made for a whole lot of temptation for him.

Simply being in the same state, the lure of wanting to see them and make sure they were okay, just to catch a glimpse of them, was huge. And if Mel hadn't been happily married, he probably would have reached out and made contact after the Don's death but he couldn't bring himself to disrupt their lives. It was his fault, his job, his undercover mission that had caused them to be in danger in the first place. He wouldn't mess with their happiness or safety for anything.

So even as he was struggling with knowing his lost family was so close and yet untouchable, he was also going to be riding to get to their destination, bringing back a whole barrowful of painful memories from his childhood. It had been a miserable trip, all things considered and Gibbs had been particularly pissy since their killer had inveigled his way into the investigation so he could locate their witness. Gibbs hated to be played for a fool and the hit man ended up nearly killing the witness, himself, Gibbs and the sheriff that accompanied them. All in all, it had been a miserable trip. When he arrived home depressed and morose he had gotten a further slap in the face by his Paddington relatives. Little did he suspect that a few weeks later, he would be re-united with his girls or have his Jessie to watch his back again.

Finally, Jessie and Tia emerged from the bedroom giggling and he hurried them out the door. They were going to stop of at NCIS later, on their way to Bethesda. He had to put in copies of the paper work for his Power-of-Attorney status, his guardianship of Tia and also Dennis' will and various insurance policies to explain how he could suddenly purchase an expensive property and why large sums of money would be appearing in his bank accounts. Financial disclosure was necessary to avoid accusations of corruption and impropriety. He'd been putting off delivering the paper work because he didn't want people to know he was back in DC but as Jimmy had argued, waiting would make people suspicious if they found out by accident.

Despite their full schedule, Tony still wanted to give Tia some time to run around and play in the fresh air and just get a chance to be a little kid. Having no yard to play in and having to spend so many hours every day at Bethesda with her mother, Jessie and Tony knew it was important she get some exercise daily. While she was an astonishingly well behaved child and would occupy herself with a book, exercise was a great stress reliever as was fun and laughter.

Both Jessie and Tony, over the course of their careers had seen kids whose childhood has been sacrificed because a sibling or parent had become ill. They knew it was a fine line between allowing Tia to spend time with her mother and it interfering with her development. It was one of the reasons why they had worked so hard to give her structure and a routine to depend on and the daily trip to the park was an important element of her routine.

As the trio made their way to the elevator, their resident busybody made her appearance known. This time there was no pretence that she hadn't been waiting to ambush them. Since her arrival, Tia had quickly captured hearts in the apartment block. Even nosy Mavis Patterson had developed a soft spot for the little girl. Most mornings she was waiting for them to make their way to the local park with bottles of juice and homemade cookies. Of course with her sweet tooth, Tia was enchanted with the spoiling she received and it wasn't just Mavis that was plying her with treats either. While Tony sympathised, knowing how difficult it was to not overindulge when the older ladies fell over themselves and each other to feed him, he also realised that he couldn't let her eat all the sweet stuff she was given.

He was trying to ensure she ate healthily, even curbing his own sweet tooth and eating more vegetables and salads. They often took cookies and cakes to the hospital to share with Mel's nurses rather than offend the kind hearted souls who seemed to dote on his daughter. It was a tricky situation and it was another reason why he was looking forward to having their own house.

After they had pushed Tia on the swings until their arms ached, she had fun running around playing with the local dogs. Today it was Max the black Labrador and Bella the boxer that she played chasey with until she collapsed out of breath on the grass with Tony and Jessie, who were discussing suitable dog breeds for Tia. Hot and hungry from running around, she asked if she could have a cookie and juice and was blissfully munching though a chocolate chip cookie when another one of her canine pals came along with her nice human Karen and sat down to chat. Tia absolutely loved the tri-coloured Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and although Buddy had a lovely nature, Jessie had cautioned that the breed was prone to a lot of genetic problems and was probably not the best choice for a kid to get too attached to. Tony, who knew next to nothing about the different breeds of dogs, was happy to defer to Jessie's expertise knowing that she had owned several dogs growing up.

When Jessie was finished her juice, Tony looked at his watch and instructed Tia to throw the juice bottle in the trashcan because they had to hurry. Karen smiled at the little girl and offered to throw it away since she was going past the bin to throw out a bag of Buddy's poop, anyway. Tia thanked her politely and handed it to her, gave Buddy a tummy tickle and stroked his silky smooth fur. After saying goodbye to Karen they hurried back to the apartment to have a quick lunch.

Tony had sent a text earlier to Gibbs, Ducky and Jimmy to say that he was planning on dropping in some paperwork to the HR department and he was bring Jessie and Tia. He sent Jimmy a text checking to see if they had been called out on a case and Jimmy texted back that they were all there. He also said he'd text him if they got called out.

Regrettably, neither Jessie or Tony noticed that although Karen walked to the trash and dropped a bag of poop in, it wasn't a fresh batch, or, that instead of throwing the juice bottle away, she surreptitiously dropped in into a clear plastic Ziploc bag and put that carefully into her oversized handbag before heading home.

Next chapter: Jessie and Tia visit NCIS, Tia makes a new friend and Jessie, hmm... not so much lol. (Really, I mean it this time, pinky swear :D)


	12. Chapter 12

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I really appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) Nice to see some newbies leaving reviews although I think that calling them reviews maybe puts people off leaving them so how about we just go with feedback or comments instead? If you're new to my stories I just wanted to explain that between download constraints atm and working on multiple stories and trying to post on a regular basis I haven't been thanking reviewers individually but I do really appreciate people taking time to give me feedback. It helps with motivation :)

You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :) Well I hope you enjoy this chapter where Jessie makes friends with the whole team .

Rising to the Bait

Chapter 12

As they pulled up at the Naval Yard and parked, Tony could feel the doubts threatening to wash over him. He felt like he was drowning, a feeling that he was uncomfortably familiar with. He couldn't shake the sensation that something bad was about to happen. Hoping that they were doing the right thing bringing her into NCIS, he turned to Tia, tugging on her ponytail.

"Hey there Sweetie, what's the rule about talking to strangers?"

"That I'm not allowed to talk to them, Tony."

"Good girl. That includes people who try and talk to you or ask you questions even if they might talk to you at my work. You can't talk to people unless you know them. You can talk to Jimmy and Ducky and Gibbs or a few other people if I introduce you and tell you that they are friends of mine, okay? But if I introduce you to someone I work with and I don't say they are my friends then you can't talk to them if I'm not with you or Jessie's not there, understand?"

The child nodded, her grey eyes serious. "Momma doesn't let me talk to strangers either. I have to tell her if people that I didn't know tried to talk to me."

Tony felt bad, knowing that Melissa must have lived in constant fear that someone would find them. He lamented the necessity of instilling Stranger-Danger so firmly into her but he knew that it was a necessary evil in order to protect his little girl. It was time for him to make sure Tia had the skills and techniques to make sure she was safe. Apart from everything else, DC had a much higher crime rate than Tucson, Arizona. Taking a breath and slipping into cop mode, he responded patiently.

"That's right, and just because they work here at the same place I do, doesn't automatically make them nice people. Let's practise what to say if someone that you don't know or aren't allowed to talk to asks you questions."

Jessie as a seasoned cop joined in the Stranger-Danger training of her god-daughter seamlessly. "I'll pretend to be you, Tia and Tony can be the stranger. Are we ready?" Everyone nodded.

"Hey there little girl, what's your name?"

Jessie replied, "I'm not allowed to talk to strangers."

Tony tried again. "But I'm not a stranger. I work with Tony, he's my friend."

Jessie modelled an appropriate response. "Well I don't know you, so I can't talk to you."

Tony tried again, "But Tony introduced us yesterday, and he said he worked with me. So I'm not a stranger, am I?"

Jessie looked at Tia. "If Tony introduced you but didn't tell you this person is a friend of his that means he doesn't want you to talk to them when you are alone. So you can say, _I'm sorry, but I don't remember. I'm not allowed to talk to you and if you don't leave me alone I will scream."_

Tony grinned. "That's real good Jess, and remember Tia, if someone won't leave you alone when you ask them to, even if you have to lie and say you don't remember them, like Jess did, that's okay. Or else you can make a fuss by lying down on the ground and kicking and yelling and you won't get into trouble from Jessie or me."

"Okay Tony, okay Jess." Tia nodded up and down, her eyes wide.

By the time they got to the security/ reception desk and arranged for visitor ID's for Jessie and Tia, the NCIS security staff were all excited to see Tony and curious about the woman and little girl he had with him. Tony DiNozzo rarely brought people to the office but he just said they were friends when he signed them in. Since he had been on leave for a month and he never took leave or ever stayed away when he was sick, turning up with a woman and child had really set the cat amongst the pigeons.

By the time he escorted them to the lift, the reception and ground floor was abuzz with rumours that Tony was dating a single mother with a child and it was racing around the building like wildfire. Jessie grinned at him and linked her arm through his, lending credence to the whole girlfriend rumour. Tia, who could feel the tension, grabbed his other hand in both her small ones, looking nervous.

Tony smiled at her, "C'mon Kiddo. Let's go and see Gibbs and the rest of my team and Ducky and Jimmy will be there as well."

"Will Emily's dad be there too?" she wanted to know.

"No he works at a different place." he explained.

The elevator dinged and spilled them out onto the floor where they realised everyone was staring at them. It gave Tony insight, even if it had dubious value he had to admit, into how a goldfish must feel. Plastering on his trademark grin, he dragged Jessie and Tia toward his team's area in the bull pen and his desk. Looking at the astonished expressions, he noted McGee reaching for the receiver of his landline.

"If you were planning on calling down to the lab McFlabbergasted, don't bother. Jimmy's already gone to fetch Abby. Long-time no see Ziva, McGee. Hey Gibbs," He greeted his team cheerily. "Team, say hallo to an old friend of mine, Detective Sergeant Jessie Lawless and this gorgeous young lady is my god-daughter Tia Cooper." He paused, knowing that everyone on the floor was listening in.

"Tia is staying with me while her Mom is in hospital. They were in a car accident," he indicated her broken arm. She was looking overwhelmed and he wrapped an arm round her and smiled at Jessie.

"Jessie, you know Gibbs, meet my teammates Officer Ziva David and Special Agent Tim McGee.

"Jessie smiled sweetly, "I heard all about you two and I've been looking forward to catching up," she crossed the floor and offered her hand to each of them to shake, using her Detective Sergeant stare to intimidate them.

Gibbs looked confused at the tension emanating from the tall, charismatic detective with the cobalt blue eyes. He looked at Tony who was watching the byplay with amusement while Tia clung to him, seemingly overawed by the amount of people crowding around. Hearing a high pitched squeal, she clung to Tony, who reassured her it was okay, softly telling her to go and stay with Jessie just before a black whirling dervish threw herself at him, screeching his name.

Laughing, he placed a hand over Abby's mouth.

"Hi Abbs, can we do this more quietly? You're scaring my god-daughter."

As he knew it would, Abby looked around and spied Jessie who was glaring at McGee and Ziva and Tia who had been clinging to her god-mother for dear life but when the forensic scientist ceased shrieking and leaping around, the little girl ran to Tony and hugged him tight, burying her face in his shirt.

"I'm okay kiddo, she didn't hurt me." He assured her gently. "Say hi to my friend, Abby Scuito. Abby this is my god-daughter Tia Cooper and that gorgeous Amazon standing over there is my good friend Detective Sergeant Jessie Lawless, Tia's god-mother."

Sensing that Tia needed some time to regroup, he picked up the paperwork he brought in to submit to HR. He looked at Jessie, "Tia and I are just going to run these down to Human Resources, Jess. Do you wanna come with or wait here?"

She smiled at him innocently, "I'll stay here T but I'm sure that Ducky, Gibbs and Jimmy will take good care of me. I want to get to know the rest of your team."

Rolling his eyes at her 'butter wouldn't melt in my mouth' expression and knowing he was adding to the gossip that was gripping the building, he crossed over to give her a kiss on the cheek, "Okay Babe, behave yourself." He grinned at Gibbs' scowl and Ziva's shocked expression as he ambled off with one small girl trotting at his side, her small hand clutched tightly in his. He winked subtly at Jimmy as he walked past.

"C'mon Sweetie, let's take the stairs."

Ducky crossed over, mirroring Tony's previous actions and kissed Jessie too. "My dear Jessica, Jimmy tells me that Antonia is fully recovered from her unfortunate bug."

"Yeah she is back to normal, thanks Ducky. We sure owe you for the house call."

"Absolutely delighted my dear, it was a pleasure. I'm always happy to help any time."

Abby, still gobsmacked from Tony's bombshell about the statuesque cop and the little girl, had managed to recover enough to want answers.

"So Jessie, how do you know our Tony?"

"We worked together at the Philly PD and we shared an apartment with Tia's mom." She decided to give them the bare bones information that they needed so that they didn't upset her god-daughter needlessly.

"Tone and I are Tia's godparents. Tia's family was in a collision with a drunk driver and when Tony called me I came running, Abby. Tia is pretty fragile as you can see right now. Her dad was killed and her mom who is my best friend, was badly injured and is still in a coma. We're heading off to the hospital to help out with her mom's therapy after Tony drops off the forms notifying HR that he's Tia's legal guardian."

Abby's excitement dissipated instantly to be replaced with distress. "Poor little girl." She grabbed Jessie in a fierce hug, seemingly attempting to squeeze the life out of the athletic cop.

Ducky grabbed her. "Abigail put her down please. Tony and young Antonia need her in one piece."

Abby let her go, "Sorry Jessie, are you okay? And my condolences about your friend, will she recover? No, bad Abby! Positive thoughts, of course she will, she has to be okay; she has a daughter who needs her. Tia will have her mother back soon, I know it."

Jessie did a mental head shake at the naivety of Tony's friend. Hard to believe she was a respected scientist. If only it was that simple. Tony wasn't giving up and neither was she, by any means but even if Mel made it back, they were both pragmatic enough to know that just because Tia needed her mother, that was enough to ensure that Melissa would make a complete and miraculous recovery. If wanting and needing was enough, then Dennis Cooper wouldn't be dead. Knowing that Tony was fond of the kooky Goth, she left those cynical thoughts unsaid, though.

Instead she told her the bare bones of what was known. "Thank-you Abby, I'm trying to stay positive for Tia. The doctors aren't sure if Mel-Mae will wake up or if she does, whether she'll have significant brain damage. It's a lot for all of us to deal with and Tia is pretty fragile right now."

Abby nodded, "So, what can we do to help?"

Ducky stepped in, and put his arm around her shoulders. "Just give them space to try to help Antonia deal with her father's death and her mother's injuries. And hold off on the hugging and squealing my dear, at least for a while. Antonia was alarmed when you threw yourself at Anthony so enthusiastically. She needs a chance to get to know everyone but in her own time."

"I can do that Ducky. I didn't know but I'll be more careful from now on."

Ducky smiled, "I'm sure that she'll come around and want to make friends, she's just a bit possessive of Anthony and he is naturally very protective of her at the moment. Patience is what's required for now." He looked sadly at Jessie. "At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I don't think that Antonia will be going anywhere, in the immediate future even if her mother does wake up."

Jessie nodded. "I agree Ducky. That's why I've decided to give notice in Boston and get a job here in DC." She knew that Ducky, Jimmy and Gibbs probably already knew that she was going to stay in DC but wanted to let the others knew that she was a fixture in Tony and Tia's life. She noted the Mossad officer's evil glare when she announced her intention to stay. "I guess you all better get used to me being around."

Jimmy beamed. "That's great news, I bet Tony is happy," he enthused fully aware that Ziva was less than ecstatic.

"Is Tony coming back to work soon, now you're back in DC again?" Abby enquired.

"I'm not sure about that, Abby. You should talk to Tony."

"So how long are we supposed to have to manage with only three of us, anyway? And it isn't as if she is the first child to lose her parents, it happens to children in the Middle East and Israel all the time. The child needs to toughen up to survive and Tony needs to stop babying her and come back and do his job." Ziva opined, glaring at Jessie.

"Like I just said to Abby, I don't know when Tony intends to come back and if you have a problem with that, Officer David, perhaps you should talk to Gibbs about your concerns. As far as I know, Tony has ample leave owing to him, even if you don't take into account all the extra time he spent working undercover for almost a year. As for taking care of Tia, I suggest you keep those opinions to yourself. I'm sure that there are children who are worse off, because you can always find someone worse off but that doesn't mean that she hasn't suffered a terrible loss or that she doesn't deserve the best we can offer her. I do know that Tony won't appreciate you sharing those views with him."

McGee snorted, "Since when has DiNozzo become such an expert on kids. They usually can't stand him and how come no one told us about you and Tia?"

Ducky stepped in. "Timothy, Jimmy and I only found out about Antonia because she was sick, and he needed advice," he said not feeling guilty about telling a white lie. "Anthony didn't inform everyone until now because he was worried that she had more than enough to cope with, dealing with all the grief and all the changes that has been forced upon her. And while he isn't an expert in child development, he has stepped up admirably and been there for young Antonia and I cannot fault him for the way he has dealt with her complex needs."

Ziva was not moved. "We are a team Ducky, and teams do not keep secrets from each other. We deserve to know about something as big as this. It affects us all, yes?"

Jimmy snorted, "Real teams support each other, they don't try and make their team mates doubt themselves or attack them for following orders to keep an undercover mission quiet. Real team mates support their leader when he tried to hold the team together if the former leader resigns and the team is in danger of being split up. They don't refuse to follow orders or constantly remind him that he isn't Gibbs or tell him that he doesn't deserve to have his own team. Real team mates, don't just come back without warning and dump a partner's possessions on their old desk and not even bother to say thanks for keeping the chair warm and ensuring the team didn't get disbanded. Real team mates don't leave their partner's in charge with the pathetic offering, "You'll do. You'll do better than what… the janitor, the probie or the autopsy gremlin?"

Jimmy was just getting warmed up, but Ducky interceded, patting him on the shoulder. "Quite right too, Mr Palmer. I think if the team wants to feel slighted by Tony's decision not to inform them about a tragedy that is intensely personal, they should also be prepared to take responsibility for their less that supportive treatment of him lately. Fairs fair my friends and life and the team has been less than fair to Anthony these past few years. I would hope that you all try to be more supportive from this point forward."

Abby piped up changing the subject since Gibbs was scowling, McGee sulking and Ziva regarded Jimmy with a murderous glare. "So why is Tia named after Tony, Jessie?"

Jessie smiled at Jimmy; Tony was right, he was a good friend and although Abby was trying to defuse an explosive situation, she had unknowingly picked a tricky subject. Still she and Tony knew that it would need to be addressed sooner or later. After meeting Tony's team mates she couldn't blame him for not wanting them to know about who Tia was.

"Yes she is Abby but she is also named after me too. Her full name is Antonia Jessica Mae Cooper."

McGee probed "But if her mom's your best friend why didn't she call her Jessica? Why Antonia… why would anyone voluntarily chose to call her after Tony?"

"Because…apparently her dad, Dennis preferred the initials, 'AJ' to 'JA' as a nickname." It wasn't true. Dennis didn't marry Melissa until Tia was 12 months old but there was no way any of them would know that and frankly she was getting mightily pissed with this pair of brats and their snotty attitude.

"So why haven't we heard of you before this, if you were all such great friends?" Ziva questioned sceptically.

The Boston Detective sighed, wanting to slap the petulant Israeli miss. "Probably because my best friend had to go into Witness Protection and Tony and I transferred out of Philly so we didn't lead the scum bags to her." She congratulated herself on nearly making it through the interrogation. Jessie was very aware that Gibbs was acutely interested in her answers too. She was prepared for the one question that was bothering Gibbs but he hadn't come out and asked.

"I don't get why anyone would make Tony their power-of-attorney and the guardian of their child. Why not appoint you, since you were best friends?" McGee probed, cynically.

Jessie allowed her irritation to show. "I have no idea Special Agent McGee since neither of us knew that Melissa had appointed him because we haven't spoken to her for the last ten years. We only knew second hand through the federal marshals that she had given birth to Tia. But I can completely understand why she would choose Tony to look after her finances and take on the custody of her precious daughter. Even though he was the youngest of us all, he was always very protective and looked out for us when we lived together. And maybe she thought, since he's grown up around money and managed his modest trust fund from his mother responsibly despite his youth, he would also do the same for her financial affairs too. I doubt he will make any dodgy investment decisions or make amateur investing mistakes by putting all her money in speculative hedge funds. However 'if' she wakes up, you can ask her yourself!"

She drew breath giving them her patented 'Sergeant Lawless' glare before delivering her coup de grace knowing that she'd drawn blood with the hedge funds comments when McGee glowered at her.

"I've also noticed you've been extremely cutting about his abilities with children but if Tia was my daughter, I would absolutely want him to look after her if I couldn't. He is doing an amazing job with that little girl and she already loves him very much. In fact, although she met both of us for the first time a few weeks ago, she started bonding with him much more rapidly than she did with me. It was Tony she wanted to stay with her when she got sick, after crying for her mother of course, not me. So a word of advice to you all, you don't know Tony at all, and if you keep on dissing him around me, you'll be very sorry. Actually, even if you diss Tony and I'm not around I will still make you pay. And I reckon that goes double for Tia."

Before anyone could respond, the familiar voice of the senior field agent could be heard chattering away in the stairwell accompanied by childish giggling. Gibbs, who had been surprisingly and conspicuously silent since Tony had strolled in with his new family, finally spoke up.

"Tia doesn't know anything about the Witness Protection Program and you aren't to mention it in front of her, people."

Jessie smiled at him appreciatively. His word was law so hopefully no one would let the cat out of the bag.

As the pair entered the bullpen, Tia went quiet as Tony walked up to his desk and opened his backpack and took out a zip lock bag. Do you still want to give Ducky and everyone else the cookies, kiddo?"

She nodded shyly and took them over to Ducky and gave him a quick hug. "Thank-you for making me better, Ducky."

He smiled at her and patted her gently on the head. "You are welcome, Antonia."

Tony smirked, looking around in amusement as he explained to the curious team. "Tia was an instant hit with all the little old ladies in my building. They keep baking endless piles of cookies, cakes and brownies so rather than offending them, we've been taking the goodies into the hospital every day for the nurses looking after Tia's mom, to have with their coffee. There's chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies there and they're pretty good.

Tia walked over to Jimmy. "I'm sorry you can't have a cookie, Jimmy because of your diabentics but I drew a picture for you instead," and held it out to him, coyly. Jimmy did his Oppie impersonation again and seemed ridiculously pleased to be remembered.

Abby quietly approached Tia and held out her hand. "I'm Abby and I'm sorry if I frightened you before or you thought I was hurting Tony."

Tia took her hand and shook it gingerly. "It's okay, Abby. Tony explained you get like that when you drink too much soda. He said that's why I'm only allowed to drink it as a special treat, she explained seriously."

Tony smirked, sensing a punch forthcoming. "Not in front of the kid, Abbs," he warned. He crossed over and dropped some papers on Gibbs desk. "That's the extension on my leave that we discussed, Boss. Do you want me to get Vance to sign them before I go?"

Gibbs shook his head and grunted. Tony pointed to the rest of the papers. "A couple of potential prospects that Jess looked at today. You got an hour or so to look at them on Saturday if nothing comes up? Kick the foundations and look for weevils?"

"Yeah, I should be able to fit that in."

"Great, thanks Boss. So you ready to go Sweetie Pie?" he smirked at Jessie, who had a deceptively angelic expression on her face, which meant that his friend had definitely been stirring the pot in his absence.

She smiled back sweetly, "Sure Honey Buns, Goodbye all. Nice to meet you Tim, Ziva, Abby. Good to see you again Gibbs, Ducky and Jimmy."

Tia waved shyly and took Jessie's left hand and Tony's right hand and Tony called out a farewell to everyone as they walked toward the elevator together. Tia's voice could be clearly heard as they waited for the elevator to arrive…

"Tony, I think you meant to say termites, not weevils. They get into the Cheerios not houses, silly. Tony? Can Jimmy come over soon so we can play doctor again?"

Jimmy went bright red, aware that everyone was looking at him disapprovingly. "I let her listen to her heartbeat with my stethoscope when she was sick. Jeeze! It was completely innocent, guys."

* * *

~ Rising to the Bait ~

* * *

John Erikson opened up the latest paternity test that had been sent to Geo Laboratories on behalf of the mother Melissa Jenkins. She had included an empty juice bottle with DNA from her daughter Antonia and a hairbrush with hair samples from the suspected father, Tony DiNozzo.

No doubt it was yet another case of the trite casual affair and then a dead beat dad refusing to accept responsibility for the child they had accidentally conceived. Seriously, hadn't these people heard of taking precautions? Geo Labs did hundreds of DNA paternity tests every week. This one was no different, just a single mother desperate to make the reluctant father responsible for their child. They were a dime a dozen.

Erikson ignored the fact that the hairbrush didn't look recent. Maybe Melissa had managed to persuade one of Mr DiNozzo's relatives to part with an old hairbrush. Whatever, he wasn't paid to wonder. He busied himself setting the test up to run, knowing that within a couple of days, the mother would have a definitive answer about whether or not Mr Tony DiNozzo was in fact the father of Antonia Jenkins. Putting aside all thoughts about the test, he opened up the next specimen bag which contained two mouth swabs requesting a paternity test.

He got busy with the next test, reminding himself that he was due for a coffee break in just under 15 minutes. He really needed to change out his nicotine patch before he raided his colleague desk and grabbed her cigarettes. Quitting smoking once again, totally sucked!

Next chapter: Pianos, pediatricians and lollipops wars.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited or left reviews for Rising to the Bait. I really appreciate all the support. I have been enjoying reading the reviews as people speculate about where the story might be headed. Keep them coming :) Nice to see some newbies leaving reviews although I think that calling them reviews maybe puts people off leaving them so how about we just go with feedback or comments instead? If you're new to my stories I just wanted to explain that between download constraints atm and working on multiple stories and trying to post on a regular basis I haven't been thanking reviewers individually but I do really appreciate people taking time to give me feedback. It helps with motivation :)

You'll no doubt all be relieved that Faldo has kindly agreed to beta the story. Thanks so much Faldo and as always people, any mistakes you find are my bad :)

Rising to the Bait

Chapter 13

Tony listened to Tia playing the familiar scales and smiled at her, grinning with delight as she smoothly managed the crossover with her good hand for the first time.

"That was great Tia, you've been practising. Maybe tomorrow if Dr O'Reilly takes your cast off, you can start playing with both hands."

"And I can go to swimming classes with Emily, right Tony?"

"Yeah, you can go swimming when the cast comes off. How about I teach you a song and when you have learnt to play it, we can make a recording of it and you can play it for your mom?

"Can I? That'd be so cool. Momma will really like that; maybe it will help her to wake up. Tony, her brain's still getting better, isn't it?"

"Yeah it is Kiddo."

"When is she going to wake up?" He looked into the troubled gaze of his daughter and wished he had those answers.

"I don't know Tia. Not even the doctors know that. When Momma's brain is well enough, she'll wake up." They'd had this conversation before and would probably have it again. Jessie thought she needed the reassurance and he could understand that. They were all looking for reassurance.

"But even when she wakes up Sweetie, her brain might still not work properly. She might have to learn to speak again; she may have forgotten how to walk. Momma might have problems remembering things and need our help," he warned her gently.

"But we're gonna take care of her aren't we, Tony?"

He smiled at her. "Yes Baby, we're going to look after her. You, Jessie and me, but we might also need help too, so we'll find some nice nurses. Now how about I teach you to play Für Elise with your good hand? Then you have to do some sums, long division and fractions."

She smiled, "And later the doctor will take my cast off."

Jessie stood at the front door of the apartment. "C'mon you two, we'll be late unless we go now," she yelled out to the pair who were holed up in Tia's room working on Dennis' memory book. Tony was helping her with drawing a portrait from a photo since years of crime scene sketching and witness sketches had turned him into a passably good portrait artist. Tony and Jessie made sure that Tia had some time every day to work on her memory book and they encouraged her to talk about Dennis.

Even though Jessie felt sure that hearing about the time Tia had spent growing up was a constant reminder for Tony of everything he'd lost when he encouraged Melissa into entering the witness protection program, while he stayed behind. Yet it didn't stop him encouraging Tia to share her memories with them. She guessed that growing up without his mom and not being able to grieve for her openly had left an indelible impression on her friend.

They were on the way to Bethesda, with a pit stop at the new doctor that Brad had recommended, for the long awaited appointment with the paediatrician Siobhan O'Reilly. Tia was really anxious to get the cast off her arm today as she was desperate to take swimming classes with Emily Fornell, who was her only friend in DC. She also wanted to start dance classes, was looking forward to being able to join in more activities at the park too and couldn't wait to get rid of the hot and itchy cast. Not that Jess could blame her on that score since plaster casts weren't exactly a lotta fun, especially when you're a nine year old kid. As Tia sat in the waiting room trying to sit still and read her book, she kept jiggling in her seat, in anticipation.

Jessie exchanged an amused look with her former partner. "Remind you of anyone?"

He grinned, acknowledging that she was talking about his own inability to stay still.

When it was finally their turn, they trouped in to meet Dr Siobhan O'Reilly. She held out her hand to Tia. "You must be Tia Cooper? I'm Doctor Siobhan and you two are Jessie and Tony. Dr Brad has told me all about you."

Tony smirked. "Well Brad does consider me his meal ticket."

"So I hear. I confess when he told me about the pneumonic plague I thought he was joking," she admitted.

"Believe me, it was no joking matter and every time I stop running regularly or I get a cold, my lungs remind me of that fact quite emphatically."

The doctor grimaced in sympathy. "Understood! Well young lady, shall we have a look at you?" She invited Tia to sit up on the examination table.

"I have another doctor too," the child informed her. "His name is Ducky and he came to Tony's apartment when I was sick last week."

"Actually, he is my personal physician and he offered to come around when she got sick with some sort of tummy bug and sore throat. She had a pretty high fever and Jess and I kinda freaked out. I wasn't sure if you did house calls or would come to someone who wasn't already a patient." Tony hastened to add, not wanting to offend the new doctor.

"Yes thank-you Dr Siobhan."

"That's good to hear. Okay let's have a look at you." She examined Tia and when she finished, she smiled and declared her healthy. "Now Dr Brad said you wanted to get rid of that cast, so I'm going to have to take an X-ray. We'll go get an X-ray taken and Tony and Jessie can wait here."

As they watched Tia following the doctor, Jessie smiled. "It looks like she likes Dr O'Reilly." She looked at Tony. "What's the matter Tone?"

He shrugged. "Just have this bad feeling, Jess. Like when I'm undercover and something's not right, ya know? Been feeling like this since the day we went into NCIS. I hope we did the right thing taking her in there."

Jessie grinned and Tony gave her a poke to her arm and an exasperated look.

"Oh yeah I know you had fun, and it sounds like Jimmy spoke his mind but I'm serious. And as much as Tia loves getting spoilt by all the LOLs in the apartment building and going to the park and the ice cream parlour, I feel like we're living in a fish bowl. I hate it and I can't wait to move into a house with better security and privacy. I'll feel safer."

Jessie knew that he was worried about Tia and she trusted his intuition. Years of undercover work had honed his senses and if Tony was feeling concerned then she knew that they shouldn't just dismiss his feelings. She had to admit that all the little old ladies in Tony's apartment were becoming suffocating for her too every time they set foot outside the apartment. Hopefully that was what was setting off his internal alarm bells ringing.

They should probably continue with the stranger danger training that they started the other day too. It was sad that children needed to learn this stuff but both of them had seen too many children who had naively gone off with someone they didn't know. Predators were so good at conning kids and constant repetition and role play was really important to make sure kids didn't forget.

Tia come back in to say that Dr Siobhan would be back soon with the pictures of her arm, which put a stopper on their conversation. Changing the subject, Tony told them that Jimmy had called to say he already had five med students and 2 student nurses who wanted to volunteer to help them with the therapy program they were undertaking with Melissa.

"He said that they had wanted to use the work experience to gain extra credits in their courses but they were also really interested in coma patient care and recovery so it looks like we have enough people to form a roster. That doesn't include Jimmy either."

"Jimmy's a good friend. He definitely has your back." Jessie knew that having extra assistance would make a huge difference once they both had to return to work. It would make them feel much less guilty, knowing that Melissa was still getting the therapy that was helping her find her way back to them. After ten years unable to communicate with her best friend, she longed to be able to finally talk to her and have her talk back."

"When can Jimmy come over…" Tia began as the paediatrician walked into the room with the X-rays. She put them up on the wall mounted light box and looked across at Tony.

"Brad said you knew your way around an X-ray, Tony?"

"Well he usually shows me mine and I guess I'm incurably nosy but I also see heaps at work. That being said I wouldn't try and diagnose anything, Doc." He saw the look of confusion and supplied extra details. "I'm a federal agent and I see a fair few PMs."

"Got it! Well anyway here is where the break was… I've got her records from Tucson and it's pretty much healed up. Maybe avoid contact sports and high risk activities for a while longer but swimming and dancing should be fine. Tia mentioned that she's going to go to weekly classes," she smiled as the little girl starting hi-fiving Jessie and Tony. "Okay Miss, let's get that cast off your arm, shall we?"

Tia smiled excitedly, but when she caught sight of the plaster saw, sudden got worried. "What's that for?" she asked.

Tony stepped in quickly. "That's the saw that cuts the plaster off, kiddo and trust me, it doesn't hurt a bit."

Tia looked at the tool that Jessie silently admitted did look scary and then into Tony's eyes. "How can you be sure, Tony?"

"Because, sweet girl, I have had lots of plaster casts taken off and it was always fine. So let's do this, okay."

Jessie knew that it would help if Tia was distracted while the cast was getting cut off, so she gave Tony a friendly punch on the arm. "Just how many broken bones have you had anyway, Tone?"

He chuckled, "Too many to remember, Jess." He noticed that Siobhan was listening in too. "I've broken both legs a few times and cracked a bone in my foot when I got pushed out of a plane on a parachute jump at night." He smiled at the surprise on Tia's face. "I've broken my arm a couple of times and my wrist too so you see, I am an expert on getting plaster casts taken off." And he grinned, "so are you too Tia. What did I tell you… piece of cake?" He grinned as Tia realised that the plaster saw had cut through the cast and it was all over.

She pulled on his arm. "Tony, what happened when you fell out of the plane?"

"It was okay Tia. I was wearing a parachute so I could jump out. I just didn't mean to go out in that spot but two Marines were arguing and I got pushed out by accident and landed in a bad place. I was fine though." He smiled at his audience.

"Sounds like you were lucky, Tony." The doctor comment while handing Tia a lollipop. "Just for the record, Miss Cooper, I don't usually hand these out but you were brave while we took your cast off. Now, no skateboarding, roller skating, gymnastics, wrestling or martial arts for you for a while Madame," she lectured half-jokingly.

Tony pouted at Tia. "I'd didn't get a lollipop when I got my cast off, so I think you should share yours with me, young lady." He begged, grinning winsomely.

She giggled, "I don't think so. I'm going to save it and share it with Emily. Bye Dr Siobhan, see you next time," and she race out to the waiting room with Tony in hot pursuit, calling a hurried farewell.

The paediatrician smiled at Jessie. "You guys are doing an amazing job with her. Brad filled me in on the blanks that her medical records didn't cover. Any questions you have for me before you leave?"

Jessie thought, "Well, we decided not to rush her back into school here. We are going to buy a house and we didn't want her to have two changes of schools in just a few months, on top of all the changes she was facing. I'm also wondering if we should find her a therapist or a grief counsellor she can talk to?"

The paediatrician patted her hand and Jessie wondered wryly when she had gone from being a kick-ass cop to being a fractious surrogate mom that needed reassuring pats on the hand. Granted this was so out of her comfort zone but it was still a bit galling.

"We had a pretty good talk while I was X-raying her arm. She told me how she does lessons every day and Tony is teaching her to play piano and how you have her read for half an hour to her mom every day. She also told me how Tony brought her family photos back and had her pick a spot for them, and how you two encourage her to talk about her dad and tell her it's okay to be sad and cry. She's going to bring in her memory book to show me, next time she comes. I don't think I could do any better and if she's coping, then I don't think you need a therapist at this point."

She took a breath and rifled through her desk. "Here's some info on grief in children. Is she having nightmares?"

"Yeah, less now than when the accident first happened, but at least a couple of times a week. Her appetite is good, though. She's pretty clingy but neither of us thinks that is anything to be concerned about. Should we be? " she asked.

"Look, considering she was in a car crash that took her dad and her mom was badly injured and she got hurt, she's doing fine. Add the fact she has had to live with people she didn't know and move halfway across the country, well that's a hell of a lot for any nine year old to deal with. I think that you just need to keep doing what you're doing and if you need advice, you have my number. Use it!"

"Thanks Doctor, and by the way, did Brad tell you about Tia's family being in Witness Protection? The threat is probably over but just to be safe, we're not letting our guard down. If you get anyone asking questions, can you let us know?"

"Sure, I can absolutely do that and I will. Now do you mind if I ask you a question? Does Tony really have a medical examiner as his physician or is Brad pulling my leg?"

"No it's no joke but I think that Tony thinks of Brad as his de facto physician too. He has some strange issues when it comes to doctors. It seems that he only trusts those medicos that talk to the dead or broke his leg when he was in college and destroyed his dream of a profession basketball career."

"Whoa, Brad did what? He never mentions that… it's all about how he saved Tony's life when he only had a 15 per cent survival rate."

"I know; guys are funny aren't they? I don't know that I would forgive someone who shattered my dream like that, even if it was an accident. And he was really, really good too. It wasn't as if they were buddies at college but apparently it was a male bonding experience and when they met again because Tony had the plague, he just 'trusted' him. And men say women are hard to understand."

* * *

Rising to the Bait

* * *

He sat behind his imposing rosewood antique desk, reading the DNA report that had been couriered to him just minutes ago. Reading the report addressed to Melissa Jenkins, he smiled reading the conclusions which stated that there was a 99 per cent chance that the familial DNA sample provided for Anthony DiNozzo was that of the father of the child, Tia Jenkins. He was elated to know that they had finally located the child that Detective Anthony DiNozzo had fathered with Philadelphia PD Forensic Officer Melissa Jenkins, after losing track of her ten long years ago.

It was still not clear where the child had been all this time and they were trying to locate this information and determine what had happened to her mother. There was speculation she was either dead or seriously injured and in hospital, according to his toadies, but they had been unable to locate her in any hospitals in DC or locate a death certificate. Again, it wasn't certain if they would find out this information or if it mattered but he wasn't someone who liked to take things for granted. He wanted to execute the plan perfectly and that meant factoring in all known variables and planning for them accordingly. The annoyingly moralistic cop Tony diNozzo had threatened his empire by his actions and it was time for amends to be made.

He sent directions for DiNozzo and his daughter's every moment to be documented so that they could come up with the best time and place to set things in motion. Being a federal agent, not to mention a father, he would be difficult to neutralise and bound to be armed, even off duty. The aim was to carry out their objective with a minimum of fuss and bloodshed if possible. After becoming obsessed with finding Tony DiNozzo's issue so he could claim her as reparation for what his he viewed as unforgivable transgressions on his family and livelihood, the man was close to finally achieving his objective. He was determined that nothing was going to get in the way.


End file.
